Relocated and renovated

New home for Brownsville campus store

This summer in Brownsville, UTRGV moved its Campus Store to the University Library to make it more accessible to students, an official says. 

Robert Cantu, executive director of Business Auxiliary Services, said the new Campus Store officially opened on July 8 and cost the university around $200,000.

Students will now have quicker access to materials when studying in the library and can grab them at the campus store, Cantu said.

He said that the new campus store is “1,900 square feet” and “unfortunately, the new space could not accommodate course materials.”

Textbooks will no longer be available for sale at the store. They can be ordered online and delivered to the store or students’ homes.

“The location is great,” Cantu said. “The layout is really nice and modern. … It’s a newer space and it’s got a nicer, cleaner look. It’s a complex space that covers all of the different merchandise that our students need.”

Items for sale include university merchandise, school supplies and graduation caps and gowns.

Dennise Ramirez, the Brownsville Campus Store leader, described the new location as “comfortable” and “homey.”

“I like that it’s smaller,” Ramirez said. “It’s not too big where we had to be going from one section to another. It’s now more compact. … I like how they did it, like, the whole way they structured it is really nice.”

The employee said she wishes the store had room to sell physical textbooks.

“It is a change and we’re trying to adapt with it,” Ramirez said. “Now, most textbooks are online.”

She said the store does not have a cafe anymore.

Cantu said UTRGV is interviewing local coffee shops to see which one fits best and which one students will like most. 

“We are working with a local vendor right now,” he said. “They’re being interviewed. … That is our goal: to work with a local coffee shop here from the Rio Grande Valley.”

The Rider asked Cantu if he had the name of the vendor UTRGV is considering for the cafe. He replied, “Not yet.”

Computer science freshman Anthony Muñoz said the campus store is an “improvement” and the location is good “in case we need something like supplies … on the quicks.”

Campus Stores are located in the libraries on each campus. 

The store in Brownsville is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday. In Edinburg, the store is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Another change to the Brownsville campus is the addition of Student Food Pantry lockers in the Student Union to match the ones that were installed in 2021 in the University Center on the Edinburg campus.

Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Stephen Hirst said the new food lockers were gifted to the university by H-E-B. 

“The food pantry is a resource for students who have food insecurity, in other words, that maybe they don’t have money to buy groceries,” Hirst said. “They have needs for food.”

The pantries help students with necessities such as food and personal hygiene items. 

Employees place the goods inside the lockers for pickup so that students can collect their items at their convenience using their student ID.

Jodie Dominguez, program manager of Student Support and Wellbeing, said students must fill out an order form at utrgv.edu/foodpantry at least a day in advance. 

Dominguez wrote in an Aug. 19 email that the lockers should be operational in mid-September. 

“We will do a marketing campaign so we can advertise the new service,” she said.

Students can use the lockers once a week between 1 and 4 p.m. Wednesday and Friday.