SFAC deliberates $509,376.62 requests in closed session

Student Fee Advisory Committee members discuss the allocation of the student services fee for Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposals during a meeting last Friday in the Esperanza room in the Life and Health Sciences Building on the Brownsville campus. Shown (from left) are University Representative Marcela De León, Student Representative Maria Ramirez Montoya, Support Staff Debbie Abrego-Medina, Student Representative Raul Ordoñez, Student Representative Alejandro Mendivil Alcalde, Student Representative Alexandra Smith-Macias, Student Representative Roy Cantu, University Representative Claudia Dole and Committee Chair Emilia Treviño. SUSAN MIRELES/THE RIDER PHOTOS

During its meeting last Friday, the Student Fee Advisory Committee deliberated Fiscal Year 2020 and 2021 one-time requests of $509,376.62 in a closed session.

The committee went into closed session from 1:15 to 5 p.m. to discuss requests, said Emilia Treviño, chair of the committee.

“It did run a little longer than expected and we were not able to accomplish everything on our agenda, but what I really enjoyed is everybody being really engaged and the critical questions that were being asked,” Treviño said Monday.

The committee first approved minutes from the first SFAC meeting on Jan. 31. The amount of requests for FY2021 total $14,287,017.02.

For Fall 2019, students paid a total amount of $20.83 in student service fees per credit hour with a maximum of $249.96.

Once the committee began reviewing supplemental information provided by the departments making the requests, the meeting turned into a closed session.

Apart from the requests, Treviño said the committee decided which departments will need to make presentations.

Departmental presentations will be heard during the committee’s next meeting, which will take place from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Friday in the Student Academic Center 3.101 on the Edinburg campus.

Roy Cantu, a student representative on the committee, said the meeting was productive and the atmosphere was friendly and open-minded.

Cantu said the committee is important because it is the students’ money and students appointed should represent the majority of the population and have a say in where their money goes.

“Perhaps we see it from the eye of the students,” he said. “I know [university representatives] all have done undergrad, they all have their bachelor’s and higher [education] degrees … but we are currently students. We currently see the … problems with the university.”

Raul Ordoñez, another student representative, said that since joining the committee, he has learned the kind of leadership roles involved in the university and how student fees benefit students.

Ordoñez said it is important to have the committee in order to hear different perspectives.

“As you know, there are other students in the committee and there’s also other faculty,” he said. “It’s important that there is a committee because we hear the different perspectives coming from different sides of the university to, kind of, come to a decision.”

Asked what different feedback student representatives can give that faculty and staff cannot, Ordoñez replied students are the ones who take advantage of the resources the university provides and, therefore, can give a different input.