SGA to brainstorm solutions

The Student Government Association has announced plans to discuss issues regarding parking with the head of Campus Auxiliary Services. 

During the senate’s Sept. 9 meeting, SGA Vice President Jose Herrera said the executive team hopes to meet with Associate Vice President of Campus Auxiliary Services Letty Benavides this Friday to address student concerns about parking and transportation. 

He also said the team has some solutions in mind. 

“The idea we had was with changing the zoning designations to something more hybrid with the payable meters,” Herrera said.

On another note, the team met with Walter Diaz, dean of the College of Liberal Arts; Sheila Dooley, associate dean for Undergraduate Education; and Odalys Saenz, senator for the College of Libral Arts, to get approval for a Student Advisory Council for the college. 

Herrera said the council was approved before the Sept. 9 senate meeting.

“We will be soon establishing it as soon as we finish the details,” he said.

The upcoming council will facilitate communication among the 13 departments inside the College of Liberal Arts. 

SGA Vice President Kimberly Escalante said the team met with the University Library department to create a survey for the student body for feedback regarding the library’s hours of operation and resources.

Escalante said the SGA received concerns about the library closing on Saturdays.     

“As of right now, the library does not have enough [staff] to be able to open up on Saturdays because of low funding that they have, so we’re trying to help the library,” she said. 

Dean of Libraries Paul Sharpe said the library has been closed on Saturdays since the pandemic and their current data demonstrates that Saturdays have the lowest student attendance. 

“The survey that we’re getting ready to roll out, we will be … trying to find out [students’] preference between Saturday hours or later evening hours through the week,” Sharpe said. 

The answers collected will demonstrate how many students would use the library on Saturdays if it were open and for how many hours to allow the executive team to find ways to fund the library. Other questions included in the survey will be about how many students are aware about library resources offered, such as the Textbook Affordability Project, with which students can get textbooks for free or at a low cost. 

Escalante said the team plans to share the survey at the end of September or beginning of October via social media and is considering a tabling event where students scan a QR code to access the questions. She said they also plan to randomly reward students who complete the survey. 

SGA President Jonathan Dominguez said the team was scheduled to meet with College of Sciences Dean Vivian Incera last Friday “to talk about why students are choosing to take more classes at the Edinburg campus.” 

“The executives believe it might be due to more courses being provided at the Edinburg than the Brownsville campus and more instructors teaching a specific subject,” Dominguez said.

The executive team will also meet with the Athletics Department to discuss future events the SGA has planned to get the student body and leaders involved. 

Academic Affairs Chair Kassandra Garcia, senator for the College of Sciences, said Meet the Deans will be rescheduled to Nov. 1 and 8. Meet the Deans is an event hosted by SGA where students can interact with the dean of their respective college to talk about any concerns or ideas. 

“We have partnered with Campus Life and [the] Community Affairs Committee … just so we can make sure that this event gets, like, marketed correctly,” Garcia said. “We want a lot of students to be able to just, like, know about it.”