Meetings set on Athletics Fee

Town halls on the Athletics Fee Referendum will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. Tuesday in the PlainsCapital Bank Student Union Theater on the Edinburg campus and Thursday in the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus.  

The town halls are an opportunity for students to ask questions and learn more information on the referendum, said Jose Raul Ruiz, chair of the Student Government Association senate and senator for the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship. 

If students cannot attend the town halls in person, there will be a livestream via its Facebook page, UTRGV Student Government Association.

The SGA Elections Committee will facilitate the event. Senior Vice President for Strategic Enrollment and Student Affairs Maggie Hinojosa and Vice President and Director of Athletics Chasse Conque, the sponsors of the referendum proposal, will be present to answer questions, Ruiz told The Rider via email. 

During the SGA meeting last Tuesday, two new business items were presented: the Fall 2021 Student Referendum Courtesy Resolution and an associate justice appointment. 

The Fall 2021 referendum Courtesy Resolution was read aloud by one of its authors, Yahia Al-Qudah, SGA vice president for Brownsville. The SGA gives its official support in the resolution, Al-Qudah said.

“So, right now, [the resolution is] just being presented, but once it goes through committee and then it goes back to the senate, and if it is finally approved in the senate at that time, the official opinion of SGA will be that the referendum is endorsed, is urged by the students,” he said. 

This is the first external legislation for the SGA, Al-Qudah said.

The official voting period on the Athletics fee referendum will be Nov. 8 through 10.   

The $11.25 increase per semester credit hour, capped at 12 hours, in the intercollegiate athletics fee would provide funding to support the expansion and creation of the football team, women’s swimming and diving team, and marching bands, Al-Qudah read.

“Recognizing that the initiative will help to expand access to athletics for students throughout the Rio Grande Valley by having the swimming and diving team to compete in Pharr, maximizing the marching bands spirit program in Brownsville and Edinburg,” Al-Qudah read from the resolution. “As well as having the football team play in Brownsville every year. All football, swimming, and diving competitions will be free to all current UTRGV students.” 

In the SGA president’s report, the president’s delegate, Vice President for Edinburg Anacette Cantu gave the report. For internal affairs, SGA membership applications have been sorted through and they will begin to reach out this week, Cantu said. 

Job Martinez, senator for the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, proposed the Environmental and Agricultural Awareness Program, which is one of the programs under the Student Activism and Advocacy Program (SAAP) bill, which the SGA passed on Aug. 24.

“The sort of vision for this bill is to have these programs that focus on different aspects, different things, around campus,” Martinez said in an interview with The Rider last Wednesday. 

The Environmental and Agricultural Awareness Program is only taking place in Edinburg, he said. 

“But this is the whole purpose of this program … is that we’re starting off with this and that will sort of set the platform for other things to follow,” Martinez said.

An email was sent Sept. 27 inviting all student organizations to adopt a community garden bed, he said. 

“So, the whole idea here is to promote sustainability within our university,” Martinez said. “And we want to scale this to the community as a whole. But we’re starting with student organizations, with student involvement. … So, what has happened now is that, if I’m not mistaken, all community garden beds are actually in use.”

The Environmental and Agricultural Awareness Program partners with Campus Food and Security Initiative (CFSI). 

The CFSI has offered to have the students showcase their harvests to the campus community, Martinez said, adding that students will be able to sell their vegetables at a market.

“Whatever doesn’t get sold, CFSI will buy them directly from the student organization,” Martinez said. “They will put them in coolers and from those coolers they will be transferred over to the Student [Food] Pantry. So, that will be donated to, given to students. Part of it will also be made into dishes that CFSI would cook from the harvest.” 

Rick Gray, the director of UTRGV’s Health Services, provided the senate with information on what Health Services offers. 

Chancy Shaaf, a graduate student in agriculture, environmental and sustainability studies, was appointed by the SGA as associate justice.

 “The judicial branch has, for the first time, a full-functioning branch,” Ruiz said during the meeting.

The next SGA meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Oct. 19 on the Brownsville campus.