The UTRGV Student Government Association (SGA) hosted its first meeting of the semester last Friday, where it appointed four new senators.
Biology seniors Yazeth Gonzalez and Michael White are the new senators for the College of Sciences; kinesiology senior Olga Campos, senator of the College of Health Affairs; and biology sophomore Yahia Al- Qudah, senator at-large in Brownsville.
White said he joined the SGA to explore the political side of science.
“Most people have that mindset of not doing that [only] focusing on med school,” he said. “In the MCAT, I thought maybe use my voice to persuade my ideas towards the public with science.”
White said he feels he finally has a place to voice his opinion and recommends others in the College of Sciences to do the same.
SGA President Ingrid De La Torre said she was excited to have new members.
“I think it’s always exciting to see what new ideas come to the table, the goals they have,” De La Torre said. “Sometimes being an outsider of SGA, it’s, like, you have fresh eyes.”
She said during her four years in the SGA, she has noticed a trend of people resigning from positions during the spring semester.
“Usually, we hit spring and then people start resigning because … there’s just different stuff to get done during the spring semester,” De La Torre said.
Angel Martinez, an English sophomore, and Sonia Mata, a communication studies junior, attended their first SGA meeting and had different responses to it.
Martinez had heard about SGA but never planned on going to a meeting, but he tagged along with Mata.
“If you want a college student to come out to your meeting at 5 p.m. on a Friday night, then you’re going to get really low turnouts,” he told The Rider after the meeting.
Mata, on the other hand, wants to be a part of SGA but does not know how to join.
“I wasn’t aware of how many committees they had and also the agenda,” she said. “I was taken aback by how organized it was.”
De La Torre said she encourages her fellow UTRGV peers not only to vote in the upcoming school elections but to run for positions as well.
“A lot of people have this idea that SGA is very formal, that it’s all serious but … I can say that I started with little to no leadership experience and SGA pretty much built me,” she said.
With no one currently in the Elections Committee, the voting dates for the SGA are yet to be determined.
“My biggest goal is to get students to feel that … there’s nothing that should stop you from wanting to be the student body president, even if you have no experience in SGA,” De La Torre said.
