Pending resolutions for SGA

Sol Garcia | THE RIDER

The Student Government Association discussed two pending resolutions during its first meeting of the spring semester Jan. 15 via Zoom. 

The Interfaith Prayer Room Resolution was introduced to the Senate last semester and was passed to the Campus Life and Community Affairs Committee, Senate Chair Yahia Al-Qudah said. The resolution is being reviewed by the committee, then, if approved, will be sent back to the Senate for the voting procedure.

“[The committee] will be going over it soon and hopefully passing it, so that it can be passed in the Senate,” Al-Qudah said. 

He previously told The Rider that the resolution calls for the construction of an interfaith prayer room on both the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses, if not all campuses. 

The other resolution is the Food Variety and Cost Resolution, which was created during a training for SGA members. The Internal Affairs Committee is currently finalizing it, Al-Qudah said. 

“Once they are completed, it will be shown to the Senate first, of course, and then it will be moved to Campus Life again, since it does deal with a campus life issue,” he said. 

This resolution would address students’ concerns over UTRGV’s food pricing and limited food options, Al-Qudah had previously told The Rider.  

During the President’s Report, Samantha Aleman, vice president for the Edinburg campus, said the executive team had met with Chasse Conque, vice president and director of Athletics, to discuss the new teams that were added to the Western Athletic Conference. 

“We also talked about how this opened more opportunities for the fans of the Athletics team to travel more to Texas cities,” she said. 

Jose Rojas, director of the First Year Internship, said he is excited for this semester to get to know “the new future of our organization, which is the First Year Interns.”  

“They have all been already accepted,” Rojas said. “They’re ready to go. … [I’m] looking forward to see[ing] what they are going to bring in for the student body at UTRGV.” 

The First Year Internship is a semester-long leadership program for entering freshman or first-year college students to learn more about SGA. This semester, 11 students have been accepted and 10 of them have responded, Rojas told The Rider after the meeting. 

Aleman is excited for both new and previous projects, such as a green fund, she said. 

In an email sent to The Rider, Aleman said a green fund is a fee that could potentially help UTRGV create more environmentally-friendly initiatives for the university. 

“Having that talk about that green fund– that is one of the things that I really want to work on this semester,” she said. “I’m just excited for a new semester working on new projects and old projects from the fall semester.” 

Al-Qudah said he’s eager for SGA to create and pass resolutions this spring semester. 

“There’s a lot of important issues that we have yet to address in the Senate, legislative wise, so I look forward to creating resolutions with everyone and getting those passed to the Senate,” Al-Qudah said. 

The next SGA meeting will be at 6 p.m. Jan. 29 via Zoom.