SCREENSHOT TAKEN BY FATIMA GAMEZ LOPEZ/THE RIDER
The Student Fee Advisory Committee met Friday to discuss its Fiscal Year 2025 timeline and review budget requests.
The total funding requested for FY 2025 is $5,639,771 and the total one-time requests submitted to the SFAC for FY 2024 is $56,514, according to an email sent to The Rider by Rebecca Gadson, SFAC chair and Dean of Students.
SFAC’s purpose is to advise the university president on the allocation of the student service fee.
Student services refers to activities “which are separate and apart from the regularly scheduled academic functions of the institution and directly involve or benefit students,” according to Section 54.503 of the Texas Education Code.
Members of the committee include Chair Rebecca Gadson; Student Representatives Odalys Saenz, Dalia Mendoza, Natasha Quailes and Andrea Maldonado; and University Representatives Marcela DeLeon, Erica Giles, Rene Layton and Hossein Shirvani.
During the meeting, Gadson explained the SFAC’s materials and told the committee to review the budget request to select departamental presentations.
Among the requests for the next fiscal year, the UTRGV Pep Band is asking for $81,000, Center of Excellence in STEM is asking for $75,900 and The Sustainable Campus Community Initiative is asking for $46,758.
During the meeting, Mendoza asked if there would be another adjustment to wages and DeLeon replied she does not think there would be another increase.
“Not that we have heard of,” DeLeon said. “We saw that increase in the wages, right, because of the minimum that was bumped up to $12 an hour. But we have not heard of that happening anytime soon.”
Gadson told the committee they “will not read a bad request.”
“Every request is a fabulous request in terms of ways to enhance, support, service at the department level or for students,” she said. “And so, part of the narrative questions that the requesters responded to were things like, ‘Who are you serving? What is the return on that investment impact and assessment? How does it support or relate to the university’s strategic plan or strategic initiatives?’ Because again, they’re all great requests. They’re all fantastic.”
Gadson said the work of the committee is to prioritize the types of requests that are coming in and make recommendations.
The next online meeting is scheduled from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Friday. According to the timeline, the committee will listen to departmental presentations. All meetings are open to the public, however, if the committee starts deliberating, then attendants must step out. To RSVP, email dos@utrgv.edu.
