With 611 of 993 votes in the Student Government Association Elections, Mission Possible has been elected as the executive ticket for the 2019-2020 academic year.
On the Mission Possible ticket are Ingrid De La Torre, who will serve as SGA president; Roy Cantu, vice president on the Brownsville campus; and Alexandra Smith-Macias, vice president for the Edinburg campus.
De La Torre, Cantu and Smith-Macias ran against the Action Taker ticket composed of Carlo Flores, Victoria Lozano and Alex Saldivar, whose executive ticket received 382 votes.
Their term of office will begin May 6 along with the 11 senators who were elected:
–Yaw Sam, senator for the Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship;
–Marco Charles and Genta Kaieda, senators for the College of Engineering and Computer Science;
–Andrew Delgadillo, Alyssa Guajardo and Diana Saldana, senators for the College of Health Professions;
–Carmen Galvan, Montserrat Prado and Franklin White, senators for the College of Liberal Arts;
–and Oscar Cazares and Jorge Contreras, senators for the College of Sciences.
During its last meeting, the Student Government Association heard a presentation on the Navigate app, which is geared toward student retention and might be added to UTRGV’s login portal.
Peter-James Ehimika, UTRGV’s program manager for Student Academic Success, explained how the app works and upcoming changes.
Ehimika said students will fill out a survey when they first login.
“This survey will ask you questions, such as what’s your classification? What semester are you in? Depending on how you answer, it will funnel you into different categories or conditions,” Ehimika told the SGA during its meeting last Friday.
He said freshmen and seniors will see different content.
“A first-year student is not going to see, ‘Hey, you need to make sure that you go back and pay back your student loans, or fill out your exit loan counseling,” Ehimika said. “Just like a senior student is not going to see ‘Welcome to orientation, make sure you that submitted your meningitis vaccine paperwork,’ … because it’s not applicable to them.”
Students can set up tutoring and advising appointments using the app.
“Every student now has been assigned to an academic adviser,” Ehimika said. “You might not know who they are. … Look into the app, see who your adviser is.”
He also said the app allows students to see not only their courses but also the students who are enrolled in them.
“That way, you can connect with them and form study groups,” Ehimika said. “[I] definitely always recommend study groups because if you don’t use study groups, sometimes you’re on your own. Not like seven, eight, nine, that’s a study pachanga. I mean, like two, three, four is good.”
The app will also help users locate buildings with a map.
“The map pins not just the location but the GPS coordinates, but also the physical location, because the GPS coordinates aren’t going to tell you if something is on the first, second, third floor, right?” he said.
Students can also see what holds they have on their account, how many drops they have and explore majors and interests through three different tests.
“It’s more geared towards your interests. … From there, it generates some potential majors for you,” Ehimika said. “Whenever you use these kind of aptitude exams, or assessments, to figure out what you’re good at or what your major is, take them but also consider other sources. You don’t want it to be the be-all end-all. ‘Well, this said I should be an accountant, and therefore, I’m going to be an accountant.’”
He said students should use the exams as a framework.
Students will also be able to submit responses to quick polls.
“Depending on how you respond, it’s going to take you to a different resource that’s applicable to the answer you give,” Ehimika said.
Ehimika said Student Success wants to remind that every student is important.
“There’s a story that has to do with these starfish,” Ehimika said. “Where there was an old man throwing starfish into the sea, one by one. And, this young man sees him and walks up to this man and says, ‘What are you doing?’”
The old man says he is throwing washed up starfish back into the sea. In Ehimika’s anecdote, the young man tells the old man that there are too many starfish and asks how it could matter.
‘The old man picks [a starfish] up, tosses [it] into the sea, and says, ‘It mattered to that one.’”
He asked SGA members for suggestions on how to fix the app and help him “throw one more starfish back into the sea.”
In other business, the senate appointed Alyssa Guajardo, senator for the College of Health Affairs, to the Campus Life and Community Affairs Standing Committee.
Planning is underway for Coffee with the Mayor, which is tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. March 22 on the Edinburg campus.
