Student Government Association

Veteran parking underway

Senator At-Large for Edinburg Skyler Howell and Senator for the College of Liberal Arts Eliseo Zavala proposed the Parking Accessibility for Veterans Today Resolution on all UTRGV campuses during the Student Government Association Senate meeting Friday on the Edinburg campus.

“The PACT Resolution supports the creation of designated places exclusively for veterans at UTRGV,” Howell said. “This is something that has been done here in Hidalgo County, so it’s not something new.”

According to the resolution, there were 432 student veterans enrolled in Fall 2024 and 621 veterans who used VA Educational Benefits and the Hazlewood Exemption in 2024.

VA Educational Benefits are provided by the federal government and range from a wide variety of benefits for veterans and their family members. According to the Texas Veterans Commission, the Hazlewood Exemption Act is a benefit provided by the Texas government, which exempts up to 150 hours of tuition to veterans and their family members. 

“That gives you over a thousand military-connected students who will benefit from this resolution,” Howell said. “It’s not often you’re going to have legislation that is impactful.”

The senator At-Large said he and Zavala are only requesting two to six parking spots per campus, all of which would be located in Zone 3 parking and should not be interfering with already labeled disability parking spots nor mobile pay parking spots.

“Many veterans suffer from invisible wounds,” he said. “So, these are post-traumatic stress disorders, post-traumatic brain injuries or other cognitive, emotional or behavioral conditions associated with strong experience by an individual.”

According to the resolution, the designation of the spaces would “demonstrate respect and support for their service, honor their sacrifices and contribute to a more accessible campus environment.”

“[In] both campuses that we are requesting [spaces] are specifically located at the nearest Zone 3 parking lot to the Military Veterans Success Center,” Howell said. “[Its] whole purpose is to foster and to provide resources for our student veterans, so we are not just throwing up any random parking space.”

Howell said he has letters of support from the Military and Veterans Success Center, Student Accessibility Services, Hidalgo County Commissioner Precinct 4 Ellie Torres, state Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa and U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, as well as a petition signed by over a hundred students supporting the resolution.

“They have come in because they support it,” Zavala said. “Not only have they signed our petition, they are here for support on it as well. It’s a good thing for campus, good thing for everybody in our community.”

Howell said UTRGV would be the first school in the University of Texas System to have this kind of parking.

“We are looking to be leaders in the UT System,” he said. “Let’s set an example so that, for future generations, for future schools that look at this, they’re going to look at UTRGV as the one that started this. We have the power to do that.”

The PACT Resolution was passed by a majority vote.