UTRGV students can vote for candidates in the 2019-2020 Student Government Association Elections today until 11:59 p.m. Friday by clicking on the link sent to their emails.
“Students are currently voting for the Student Government Association Elections,” said Jodie Dominguez, UTRGV’s director of Leadership and Mentoring. “It’s for the 2019-2020 term, and so, it’s important for students to get out there and vote so their voice can be heard.”
Seventeen students are running for different offices. Their bios and platform statements are also available through the email sent Monday, when voting began.
Results will be available next Tuesday. Dominguez said the inauguration will be on April 17.
Presidential Candidates
Name: Carlo Flores
Major: International business
Classification: Senior
Current Position: Edinburg Vice President
Executive Ticket Name/Slogan: Action Taker
Brownsville Vice President: Victoria Lozano
Edinburg Vice President: Alejandro Saldivar
Why are you running for Student Government Association president? “I first got into SGA my sophomore year. I was working, and one of my friends from Brownsville was taking a class here [in Edinburg], and they were in line for the shuttle and, unfortunately, when it was her turn to get on the bus, the driver denied her entry because there was no space on board, and she didn’t know what to do and she missed class and work for the rest of that day in Brownsville. And, so, she came crying to me, asking if I knew of a solution, or what we could do, or what could happen, and I was disappointed because I didn’t have anything to offer. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have anything constructive. And the best we could do was tell our boss, and our boss sent an email to transportation. And we got the generic email back that, ‘We’re fixing it, we’re working on it.’ That’s when I started researching who represents students on campus. How does one go about getting their voice heard, and that’s when I stumbled on SGA. And then, the upcoming fall after that, I ran for senator at large for Edinburg, and I’m thankful to say that I won, and I’ve been at SGA since. I did take a small hiatus to help try to elect Beto O’Rourke into [U.S.] Senate, but I’m back in SGA, and I’m super happy to be representing the students of Edinburg. … That’s really the underlying reason why I’m running for president. Because we need a voice here at UTRGV, and the students need to be represented and there needs to be transparency.”
What experience do you have related to the position you are seeking? “I have been in SGA. I’ve been elected the senator at large for Edinburg twice. I was elected chair of the senate twice as well. In my first term as a senator, when the chair of the senator resigned, I stepped up into a leadership position. I went from being the chair of campus life and community affairs to being the chair of the senate. When I ran again for re-election, for the 2018-2019 term, I was lucky again to be elected chair of the senate. After the previous president’s departure from SGA this spring semester, President [Alejandro] Saldivar appointed me as vice president for Edinburg. So, I came back in trying to provide the knowledge and experience in SGA that I’ve had to the current senate members … show them how to draft bills, legislation. … I’ve had experience as a senator, having meetings with the departments, and I’ve worked with the president previously, [also] President [Alondra] Galvan previously. I know the responsibilities that are required of the executive, and I’m excited.”
What are some of the challenges facing the student body and how do you plan to address them? “There will always be obstacles for students. The three main ones that we’re trying to tackle is transparency/communication. … a lot of the issues that a lot of students have at UTRGV stem from a lack of clear communication from administration, from departments, from Academic Advising to the Dining Hall hours or the Student Union hours in Brownsville during the summer. The lack of communication causes issues for students and as vice president, I have been fortunate to be able to bring up that point to the current administration. … We’re looking forward to working with them for the rest of this term. … Another one is affordability. We’re all students. We all have to pay for textbooks. We all have to pay a lot of money. … What we’re looking to do is to establish a source of, in crudest terms, a piggy bank of resources for classes. We will try to bring in textbooks and whatever other materials professors require and ensure we’re able to provide that essentially for free to the student body, which will help save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. … I know for an access code, I had to pay $250. … If we can get that price lowered, or if we can try to get certain textbooks lowered … having that kind of resource, that kind of piggy bank at UTRGV, would definitely help so many of our students. …
“And our last one is campus equity. There is a big disparity between the events and the student life in Edinburg and Brownsville. … We understand that Brownsville is a smaller campus, but at the end of the day, they’re still an equal campus, and we need to make sure that they’re represented in the best way possible, that they’re having equal events, that they’re being included in our student life. … That includes courses, that includes campus life.”
SGA has faced low membership in the past. How do you plan to address this issue? “It’s unfortunate we’ve had low membership, but I personally think that this also has to do with our lack of clear communication, our lack of being out there with students. … We need to ensure that our senators are living up to the responsibilities set out in our constitution, our guidelines. Sometimes, we’re pushing events on them that distract from that. … An option is to establish a new standing committee that would essentially be an events committee or, like, a spirit committee. The senators that are in this committee would be in charge of putting on events for our students on behalf of SGA, going out there and building those relationships between the student body and SGA, but with that committee being able to take up that responsibility. Our senators in academic affairs, campus life, internal affairs and financial affairs can solely focus on the responsibilities they have. …
“I recently proposed, as vice president, a piece of legislation that established new senator positions for the newly established colleges. … For example, the School of Medicine had no senator positions within SGA. So, I submitted a bill that established those committees. Right now, it’s still in committee. … I’m working on writing a bill to establish residents’ senator positions for each residential building. I think it’s really important to ensure that our resident students are represented.”
How do you plan to unite students on both campuses? “As SGA, we are representing all students. It doesn’t matter what campus you’re at. … We want to make sure your student life is as comfortable as possible.”
How do you plan on getting the student body more involved in university affairs/SGA? “Again, through that spirit committee, we hope to be able to build up more spirit. There’s amazing work that was done by organizations like The Herd driving up school spirit. I think we can definitely capitalize on that by getting more involved individuals on board.”
Name: Ingrid de la Torre
Major: Communication Studies
Classification: Junior
Current position: Brownsville Vice President
Executive Ticket Name/Slogan: Mission Possible
Brownsville Vice President: Roy Cantu
Edinburg Vice President: Alexandra Smith-Macias
Why are you running for Student Government Association president? “Until a month ago, I could probably say that I wasn’t intending to run for the SGA elections, but I was motivated a lot, a lot, by our student body trying to make a difference, really trying to get the students’ voice out there, to get proper representation for students, to make promises we can keep, right? We’re not going to promise something we can’t keep. And to keep pushing to keep having difficult conversations with administration. And to keep doing whatever it takes so that we ensure students have the best experience possible at UTRGV.”
What experience do you have related to the position you are seeking? “I’ve served in SGA pretty much since I got to UTRGV. My SGA journey started as a freshman, where I began the first-year internship project with SGA. So, I was interning for SGA. My second year, I ran to be senator at large here for the Brownsville campus. It was a beautiful experience. I worked with people like Ernesto Farias, which taught me so much about SGA. We helped in the creation of the SGA handbook. We did a lot of cool things with internal SGA. This year, I currently serve as vice president in Brownsville. My ticket, or my term this year, began with [former SGA President] Denisce Palacios. She also helped me so much. She helped me grow, not only as a person, but also in the organization. So, this year, I was able to see what it takes to be president, the duties of a vice president as well, the commitment, what it takes to show up at a meeting, and I’m one of those people who loves face-to-face interaction. … So, I remember driving in the summer all the way to Edinburg and coming back for work or coming back to class just to meet with departments face to face and get that personal interaction. So, I’ve learned a lot this year, and it’s been really fun.”
What are some of the challenges facing the student body and how do you plan to address them? “Currently, there’s a lot of things, but there are things that have already been addressed and are already working. So, I wouldn’t like to take credit for things that SGA has already worked on. So, I can tell you that SGA is already working on, for example, class availability. SGA has already gotten parking and transportation to lower the rising permit fees. And they also promised that instead of continuing to raise the permits, they’re going to keep them at the price they are. So, that’s super awesome. We got them to also lower the cost for permits for evening students. … We’ve also worked for transportation. Here in Brownsville, one of the things I want to do is have a schedule for a circulator here. A lot of the times, we complain that there is a parking lot built right in front of Casa Bella. And we’re like, ‘OK, what’s the reality of students parking all the way over there and then coming all the way to Main, and to class?” No, that doesn’t happen. So, what I want to implement is a schedule for the circulator, so students are sure if that if they go park all the way over there, there is going to be a shuttle to pick them up, drive them all the way to class, and then take them back at the end of the day.”
SGA has faced low membership in the past. How do you plan to address this issue? “During my term, I think that was one of the biggest challenges. Due to low membership, I can say that it was a lot of work put on very little students and we do not intend to keep things that way. I’ve always been very active in organizations. I have held leadership positions in different organizations. And for that reason, one of my goals this year, whatever the outcome, is trying to get SGA to collaborate more with the students. So, definitely, I think collaboration is key. I also worked for the Superhero project, where we also host collaboration meetings and everything we do is collaboration. I’m a team player. I’m used to working with students, and I always feel the more, the better.”
How do you plan to unite students on both campuses? “If students see our pictures, our campaign, everything, we try to mostly always dress the same. So … I got everyone the same tie, and this is to represent the unity between both campuses. I was born and raised here in Brownsville. I have no problem to travel to Edinburg. In fact, next year, I will have to move to Edinburg because of classes. Unity is something I have always [sought], not only at the university, but I can tell you, even at my house. It’s just something that has been natural to me. I see the unity at my home and that’s something that I want to bring to my second home, which is UTRGV.”
How do you plan on getting the student body more involved in university affairs/SGA? “More than anything, it’s motivation and inspiring people. I really think that when you share stories, you’re able to impact more people. This weekend, we went to the [American Society of Mechanical Engineers] Block Party to talk to the engineering students. There was an [alumnus] that told us he was a veteran, he was a single parent, and he’s currently working for NASA. So, I think sharing those stories and putting a spotlight on those types of people will really inspire students, not only to get involved but also know that even though we’re overlooked sometimes, we can achieve anything we set our minds to. The [Rio Grande] Valley, it’s great. It’s a special place. We have very special people, and we have a lot of talent. I really want the students to know we can’t let that go to waste. We have a lot to do, we have a lot of work. And especially, if we want to make change in the university, it’s important that we all work together, that we all collaborate, because it’s different to have three people pushing something than to have the whole student body right behind an issue. It really creates an impact, and it makes a change.”
For information about voting, call Dominguez at 665-7080.
