The Student Government Association has appointed Ihssan Al-Qudah, a biology sophomore, as an associate justice and Tristan Hernandez, a computer engineering junior, as senator for the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
Hernandez and Al-Qudah each spoke before their appointment during the Sept. 23 senate meeting.
Hernandez said he applied because of his leadership experience and his desire to contribute to the change in the availability of classes offered in the Brownsville campus.
“I know here in Brownsville, most of the colleges, the population is a little small in comparison to Edinburg,” he said. “I mean, obviously, Edinburg has the far more variety of classes to choose from. You try to select a class, but it’s only in Edinburg.”
Hernandez said this is one of the issues that he would like to address in his college as well as in the other colleges.
Al-Qudah said, “I am fit for this role because I believe I have the capacity to make unbiased decisions with evidence and precedence as factors.”
During the executive team report, SGA Vice President Jose Herrera said the team would meet with Campus Auxiliary Services regarding parking and transportation issues after the senate meeting.
In an interview with The Rider last Tuesday, Herrera said the SGA will collaborate with Parking and Transportation Services to market resources, such as the VOLT.
“You know, how, like, the VOLT works, like, that you get in, you show them your student ID and then you can use it to go around the campus,” he said. “Well, they heard, like, some students … don’t know that that is available to them.”
Asked about the SGA’s idea of hybrid zoning designations, Herrera replied, “They said that’s something that they already kind of look at, but for sure that they want to include us. That way, we can see the process and possibly put some input on it as well.”
Student Life Program Coordinator and SGA Adviser Kourtnie Hernandez said that Parking and Transportation Services was looking for a focus group of 10 students. The focus group session took place Sept. 26 in the Student Union on the Edinburg campus and last Tuesday in the Life & Health Sciences Biology Wing on the Brownsville campus. All students were eligible to participate.
Herrera said Parking and Transportation Services will send a survey to students via email for their opinion.
Kourtnie Hernandez said the positions of secretary of administration and finance and office assistant for SGA are still vacant.
Hernandez also announced three new full-time staff members in Student Involvement. Cristina Rodriguez is the new assistant director of Student Activities, who started on Sept. 1; Isela “Sel” Gomez is the new head coach for the Spirit Program; and Stefanie Elliott is the new administrative assistant for Student Activities. Gomez and Elliott start their jobs today.
Herrera said UTRGV Madness is confirmed. The SGA will reach out to organizations about this event before Oct. 14.
Student Activities officials said the event will take place Oct. 28.
Herrera also said the library survey is being finished.
“We’re just finalizing the wording of the questions and … the information that we want to gather, but we’re very, very close to putting that out,” said Paul Sharpe, dean of Libraries.
Sharpe said the survey is expected to be completed in the next week to 10 days. He also said the library will conduct a grand prize drawing for the students who complete the survey and award other small prizes for other participants.
“Because we want significant turnout and feedback from students, we’re going to be offering a grand prize,” Sharpe said. “It’s going to be, probably like, a Bluetooth speaker. Then, we’ll have several smaller prizes, which are, you know … UTRGV swag and library stuff.”
Herrera talked about the executive team’s meeting with College of Sciences Dean Vivian Incera, which took place Sept. 16. In the previous senate meeting, SGA President Jonathan Dominguez said the team would “talk about why students are choosing to take more classes at the Edinburg campus.”
He said initiatives for the college have started, and that he would have more details once the team meets with the college dean again.
Herrera said the executive team will meet with the College of Fine Arts next.
Julianna Castillo, senator for the College of Health Professions and chair of Campus Life and Community Affairs, said the committee is working on two proposals to present to the executive team for approval.
“We do have a senator working on a volunteer event for this semester. It’s a blood drive,” Castillo said. “So we will partner with UT Health on that.”
She said another senator is working on a proposal for a donation drive for children and that the committee would have more information available on these events after the committee’s meeting last Wednesday.
Counseling Center Director Christopher Albert provided the SGA with a presentation regarding UTRGV’s Frontline Mental Health Support Project, which addresses the issue of students not knowing about the Counseling Center mental health resources.
