Bryan Ramos | The Rider
The Student Government Association has appointed a new chair to the financial affairs committee and discussed campus safety.
Last Friday, the senate approved Chair Eric Silva’s appointment of sophomore Jonathan Tyler Gonzalez, who also serves as secretary, as chair of the Financial Affairs Standing Committee, filling the vacancy left when Julian Verdream resigned two weeks ago.
Gonzalez, an exercise science major, will work closely with Vicente Martinez, secretary of finance. Part of his duties are to present student travel and event funds applications to the other committee members and approve or deny the aid based on eligibility. Gonzalez said he is committed to improving communication with the student body to build a good connection.
“The most important thing is to establish a line of communication between the students and the financial affairs committee,” he said. “We want students to take advantage of the great opportunities that the travel funds and event funds provide.”
As senate secretary, Gonzalez has worked closely with each SGA committee and is familiar with the situation regarding the financial affairs chairmanship. Now, he is focused on moving the financial affairs committee forward.
“As an organization, we do have to acknowledge where we went wrong and where mishaps were made because that’s the first step to improving,” he said. “That’s the good thing; we did acknowledge what happened and now, we have to move forward.”
The SGA also conducted a survey inspecting the lighting situation on the Edinburg campus on Nov. 3. SGA Edinburg Vice President Peter Averack heads the initiative, which focuses on the 65 buildings and surrounding high-traffic areas to make sure the lights are up to standard.
Surveyors were Averack; SGA Senator Kanea MacDonald; Richard Costello, director of Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management; Oscar Villareal, director of Campus Facilities and Operations; James Loya, UTRGV assistant police chief; and Jorge Garza, director of Construction Services for Campus Facilities Operations.
During the Campus Lighting Survey, a total of 49 zones in need of attention were found. Of the 49, three zones are in need of mechanical adjustments, three zones are obstructed by overgrown landscaping, 16 zones require light bulb replacements, 27 zones require either the construction or reconstruction of light sources, and seven zones are in need of critical attention.
“No student should have that sense of walking through dark areas at night,” Averack said. “That’s the type of feeling that no one should have walking around an academic environment. Something as simple as the concept of lighting, here we see there’s great opportunity and to me that’s exciting. We can do something about that.”
As part of the initiative, Averack brought up the blue security beacons around campus, which don’t work and are wrapped in yellow caution tape.
“As a communications studies major, the symbolic nature of things to me is very important,” he said. “We need to do something because the message that it’s relaying is, ‘The emergency system is down; you are not safe at this point.’”
The next SGA meeting is scheduled at 2 p.m. Friday in Education Complex Room 1.102 in Edinburg and in Biomedical Research and Health Building Room 1.222 in Brownsville. All SGA meetings are open to students.
