Expanding borders

UTRGV is working with Mexican officials to establish a service center in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, México, to provide assistance to the student population that lives across the border.

In an interview with The Rider, UTRGV Deputy President Janna Arney said the center will offer services that relate to enrollment or financial aid.

“If a student lives in Matamoros or in México and they have a question and they do not want to have to come to one of the campuses, that would be a location where they could go and speak to somebody,” Arney said. “It is to provide services for students in a more convenient location, so that they don’t have to come to campus for paperwork, questions or information.”

Asked how UTRGV hopes the center will impact the university, she replied that these services would help students continue their education and graduate.

 “Whether [students] are starting … or continuing their education, we hope that by providing our services … in a more convenient way, that will make it possible for them to continue to be UTRGV students and graduate,” Arney said.

UTRGV has already identified a location in Matamoros that could become the new center.

A specific address has not been released to the public, but the location will be near Parque Cultural Olímpico and the new U.S. Consulate General in Matamoros that is under construction, according to Arney.

Lilibeth Pesina Avalos, a UTRGV graduate student in clinical psychology, is one of the many UTRGV students who reside in the neighbor city of Matamoros.

“There is a lot of students that live in Matamoros and that cross [the border] every day to get to Brownsville,” Pesina said in Spanish. “Sometimes to make any [school] procedure … we have to cross and sometimes it is several hours that we have to wait on the bridge line.”

She said this center will make things easier for students like her.

Arney said the project is barely in its infancy.

“We will continue to have conversations with our counterparts,” she said. “We want to design something that works for them, so those conversations will need to continue so that we understand what it is that we need, or what [students] need–more importantly.”

Student Success, Strategic Enrollment and the Office of Global Engagement are the UTRGV departments that have been involved in the conversations for the center, according to Arney.

Pesina also told The Rider that it would be helpful for the center to offer other services such as the Language Institute, assistance for international students and advising.

She recalls how one time not having a center in Matamoros brought difficulties for her.

“I had to do a payment, I took too long waiting [in the international bridge] line and when I got here, the school was already closed,” Pesina said. “It has also happened to me that … I have appointments with advisors and I don’t make it on time because sometimes the waiting time can be 20 minutes, it can be one hour, or it can be two, so it varies a lot.”

Similar experiences happened to Beatriz Vela Villanueva, a physics senior who used to live in Matamoros two years ago.

Vela said the center would make things accessible for people in Matamoros who are interested in getting their education in the Rio Grande Valley. She would also like to see an office for international students.

    She told The Rider that due to all the political turmoil that is taking place in the U.S., the center would be a great opportunity.

“When I was just admitted I had come to speak with an adviser to see in what phase my admission process was,” Vela said. “To get answers for very small questions, I had to cross, literally, a country.”