SGA hears standing committee reports

With no action items on its agenda last Tuesday, the Student Government Association heard adviser and standing committee reports.

Delma Olivarez, SGA adviser and associate dean of students for Student Involvement, said an email would be sent to first-year-interns about one-on-one meetings Oct. 4 through 15.

Olivarez said the Civic Engagement Alliance plans events for National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday.

At the event, students can check their voter registration status, eligibility requirements and update any information.

Oct. 4 is the deadline to register to vote for the upcoming election on Nov. 2.

SGA members also heard standing committee reports.

“We are also focusing on Brownsville campus projects, such as current events,” said Job Martinez, senator for the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship and chair

of the Academic Affairs Standing Committee. “The reason being is that we want to have more involvement, we want to see more things going on in the Brownsville campus. Part of the projects that we are working on … focus on that as well.” 

Jose Raul Ruiz, chair of the senate, announced that a Switzerland study abroad information session was to take place last Thursday at 1 p.m. on the Edinburg campus and was open to all business students. A guest speaker was scheduled to present information from the Switzerland education group.

Ruiz also announced a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11.

After the meeting, The Rider asked Karitza Garcia, senator for the School of Nursing and the chair of the internal affairs standing committee, what students should be aware of.

Garcia replied that a major topic is the Intercollegiate Athletics fee referendum, which the SGA supports and students will vote on Nov. 8 to 10.

“So, they’re going to be having info sessions and that will directly go to [Vice President and Director of Athletics] Chasse Conque and [Senior Vice President for Strategic Enrollment and Student Affairs] Maggie Hinojosa, since they are the authors,” Garcia said. “And they are going to be having some info sessions later this week to go ahead and kind of get that going.”

One meeting took place at 3 p.m. last Wednesday in Salón Jacaranda on the Brownsville campus.

Conque and Hinojosa were present, Garcia said, adding that another was to take place at 3 p.m. last Thursday in the University Ballroom, where they were going to answer questions about the referendum.

An email was sent by the Dean of Students about the information session to students who attended an SGA event or a tabling and left their email for more information from the SGA, Garcia said.

However, The Rider was told later by Dean of Students Rebecca Gadson that they were not  information sessions but rather “meetings for students who have an interest in planning and doing voter engagement activities for the special election on the referendum.”

“As far as further info sessions–so there’s things called tablings that usually SGA does for referendums to kind of get students’ interest and kind of provide answers for the students,” Garcia said. “However, those are actually going to be done by the authors of the referendum, so SGA will not be answering any questions.”

An email will be sent to the student body for town halls that will take place, she said.

“What we do at SGA, we try our best to kind of educate people and say this is how it started, this is how we got it, this is what we did and now this is up to you,” Garcia said. “So, we kind of explain what the referendum is and the steps that it goes through to get to the student body and explain to them all of the different things that go into this.”

The sessions will consist of giving the most information possible so students can make informed decisions when voting, she said.