Q: Describe your time at SGA and when you entered, and what positions you held at SGA.

TE: Okay, well, I mean just the full time in SGA. As soon as I became, you know, since I came to UTSA I joined SGA as a freshman in that, in my second semester so the spring semester which is when SGA holds their normal elections. I came in as a science senator, at the time I was in the college of science and science is always the College of Science is always underrepresented in SGA so I joined as a science senator, I was in there for maybe three weeks, no probably a month, and I left it was a broken organization to say the least. I mean three, we imagine being in an organization for three weeks and already knowing it’s a mess. A lot of people, like I was kind of, went out with a wave. You know a lot of people left at that point. And then my junior year, I joined, again, as this time as a Senator for the College of Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA) which is the college I’m graduating from. I joined in the spring of 2019, which once again with those normal SGA elections. I served you know my full term. And then when it came time for re-election I decided to run for president, and that was a year ago, of course around this time. Almost a year ago today, and I won as president so I’ve just finished serving my term as president.

Q: What was your greatest accomplishment during your time in SGA?

TE: So, I don’t want to be annoying. I know the answer should be simple, but I think I can’t like name one accomplishment that I consider to be the greatest. I know I personally have some accomplishments that I consider to be the best but definitely I think a lot of students consider maybe the past of the acquiring of pass fail, back in the spring of 2020. That was a big success. It was really, you know, we were able to prove that SGA actually did have some form of input and high levels, and we made it clear that students wanted that, but of course we couldn’t have gotten it without the support of the faculty, the faculty senate was on board and whenever SGA and the Faculty Senate agrees on something, it’s almost impossible to stop them from having it. There’s that. Then of course there’s the, you know, mental health, push, not as strong as I’d like it to be because we were online so there were a lot of other concerns. It was very easy for UTSA to put it on the back burner, but we implemented Mental Health First Aid. We acquired more funding for counseling services. And then my personal biggest accomplishment is what I consider like the realignment of SGA so you know when I was a senator, both the first time and the second time SGA, took a lot of focus in student affairs of course you know there’s three umbrella departments of the University: Student Affairs, Business Affairs and Academic Affairs and SGA loves to stay in student affairs and why do they love to stay in student affairs because it’s, you know, that’s probably the department that administration wants. I think one they feel comfortable there and two administration enjoys them staying there you know it’s, it does house some important departments like counseling services and, you know, a lot of departments but overall it’s an area that the you’re not going to get a lot of pushback from, you know, everyone can agree on mental health services we need more counselors etc But business affairs and academic affairs are the more touchy subjects to admin and personally, I’ve always wanted to look more into academic affairs, you know, look into how we’re being taught in our classes, our core curriculum, and the tenure process so my most cherished accomplishment in SGA was kind of asserting SGA’s role in all areas of the university, ensuring that administration knew that despite, you know, common belief students do care about all aspects of the university, not just whether or not they’re gonna have a pep rally on Friday or not.

Q: What advice do you have for current and future members of SGA?

TE: I guess. I mean the most logical advice is just not to forget why they’re there, I’m, we’re all guilty. When we’re faced with people with higher positions we tend to, you know, clam up or whatever but it’s very important to remember that you’re there representing, in the case of UTSA. You know more than 33,000 students, and their concerns and, you know, I think a lot of people come into SGA reminiscent of high school you know like student councils, not realizing that, you know, you this is not some symbolic role, you’re actually in those meetings, you’re the only voting member on all the university committees, etc. So you have a real method to, you know, impact the university community positively.

Q: What are your plans for after graduation? Have they always been your plans.?

TE:  So, right now. My plans after graduation I’m attending law school in the fall, I think, I mean overall they’ve always been my plans, you know, I think, I’ve always wanted to go into the law really my passion is for public service. And the law is a great avenue into public service, but that’s not to say I don’t have a liking for, you know, the prospect of being an advocate for justice, etc. And I’m really excited about that and yeah they’ve, they’ve pretty much always been my goals and you know, ever since I was a child, I’ve always wanted to be in those roles.

Q: How will your experience in SGA help you in your future endeavors?

TE: It’ll help me in the way that I’m no longer ignorant, if that makes sense, and I’m not trying to paint anything in a bad light but I think higher education is certainly a microcosmic you know representation of how the world works and how government works and that is it doesn’t work most the time. It’s very difficult to accomplish things even if they’re agreeable. There’s a lot of bureaucracy, etc. Was it frustrating. Yes, but I think it would be ignorant for me to come to you and say, you know, life isn’t frustrating that being in public service and frustrating. So it taught me. You know how to effectively stand up for other people, kind of represent a viewpoint and how to get things done in a system that is almost designed to ensure things don’t get done.

Q: What will you miss most about UTSA and SGA?

TE: I think the thing I miss most is that platform to make a difference, you know, obviously, you know not everyone has that platform and UTSA is gave me that platform of I’m not really UTSA SGA gave me the platform to change things at UTSA and that’s what I’ll miss most and, you know that feeling of intense purpose of course I’ll still have purpose in law school, but it’ll be delayed purpose you know I’m going to be studying the law to then one day, do what I was doing at UTSA which was you know every day, doing what I love to do which is representing students representing their concerns and trying to make positive change. 

Q: What thoughts do you have on the new administration?

TE: I mean they’re overall very positive. Jose Escobedo the new student body president was my student body vice president, he was my preferred candidate to win. I mean, but with, you know, with every administration there are changes that I may not agree with but the great thing is that, Jose and I disagree in a very, you know, mature and neutral way you know we don’t hate each other. We work together very well. And I’m sure he’s going to do a great job, and his whole team looks amazing.

Q: What were your favorite and least favorite parts of being SGA President?

TE: Well I’d say my favorite parts were of course having that platform, like I said, being in those rooms, you know, getting to make a difference, or at least attempting to make a difference. And of course I can go without saying, meeting. You know, meeting all those wonderful people both staff and faculty, but also the students, you know, working with all these students very closely. So yeah, you know, getting to be in those rooms getting to make a difference and stuff but the least favorite parts. And then I hate to dwell on but they were there were this you know what seems sometimes almost inherent dislike for SGA. Almost a structural problem in terms of achieving change at UTSA, even at times, you know the intense and nasty politics of higher education, you know, I hate to sound dramatic, obviously I was student body president of UTSA I you know I did not serve in the Senate of the United States, but politics are very rampant at in higher education, and I don’t want to say you know UTSA is even worse. No, I’m sure UTSA is just the same as all of them but, nonetheless, it’s pretty bad. And those politics can really ruin all the good work you want to do. And you know I don’t want to, you know any, you know, pick out certain members of administration and attack them personally, there was some, there are many members of administration who I worked with amazingly who really do care about students who, you know, wanted to hear what I had to say about students and their concerns. But there are also members of administration, in all levels high low whatever, who really do not want to hear it from SGA, you know they have a bad view of SGA. It’s you know, there was one bad president. Two years ago, or maybe there were a couple bad presidents and because of that they discredit the whole organization I mean, look at the President’s Student Advisory Council. There’s a whole Council of Students appointed by Dean’s and other administrators to represent students, but there’s also an organization who has elections to represent students but who does the President go to he goes to the Presidential Student Advisory Council and that’s very frustrating. That was definitely a bad part of being in SGA because you knew you had this platform but you only had the platform when it was convenient, and that’s of course it’s frustrating and then it’s not just, I don’t want to, like, I don’t want to put single hand blame on anyone. And then the second most frustrating part I’d say is the lack of communications with students, you know COVID was a nice excuse. What I mean by that is, I did not have a lot of contact with students and the excuse for that is well COVID happened because I had a lot of goals to get, you know to contact students. And we tried in a lot of ways but you know you can’t make students care and I’m not saying students don’t care certainly students care you know they care about their classes, they care about whether or not they have parking etc. But I understand why it gets tiring, but also it’s it’s almost impossible to represent people to people like administration, without them backing you, it’s you know, it shouldn’t be that way, I should be able to walk into a meeting room with the President’s Cabinet and say this is how students feel and that’s the end of it, but no that the second you say the students feel a different way than they do they want data showing Well, are you sure they don’t feel that way it’s like well I won an election, but whatever. Let’s try to find that data. And when students are already. I forgot what they called it but you know, like, technologically tired after the COVID pandemic they’re tired of being online, they don’t want to fill out a survey for SGA, so that was that was sad, I don’t blame the students at all for that. That was just a sad part of the job, hard part.

Q: What made you want to devote part of your college experience to SGA?

TE: Well, It’s funny because I think a year ago, if you’d asked me that I do not want to dedicate a part of my college experience to SGA. I think SGA has a lot of problems. So I like to say instead that I tried to dedicate my college experience to other students because an SGA just happened to give a great platform to achieving those goals to help other students. I mean I have in some in some regard is a really good, you know character asset but in other words it’s a flaw in which is when I see something that’s not working I have this inherent need to fix it, and parts of UTSA like all places of higher education don’t work best for students and I experienced it both as a student and I heard it from other students so that when I heard that there was actually a real position, you know, a real place where a student could be in those rooms and be taken seriously and make change. That was something I couldn’t resist, I had to, you know, go for it and try my best to make a positive difference.

TE: Well I’d say my favorite parts were of course having that platform, like I said, being in those rooms, you know, getting to make a difference, or at least attempting to make a difference. And of course I can go without saying, meeting. You know, meeting all those wonderful people both staff and faculty, but also the students, you know, working with all these students very closely… And then I hate to dwell on, but there were you know what seems sometimes almost inherent dislike for SGA. Almost a structural problem in terms of achieving change at UTSA, even at times, you know the intense and nasty politics of higher education, you know, I hate to sound dramatic, obviously I was student body president of UTSA  you know I did not serve in the Senate of the United States, but politics are very rampant at in higher education, and I don’t want to say you know UTSA is even worse. No, I’m sure UTSA is just the same as all of them but, nonetheless, it’s pretty bad. And those politics can really ruin all the good work you want to do. And you know I don’t want to, you know any, you know, pick out certain members of administration and attack them personally, there was some, there are many members of administration who I worked with amazingly who really do care about students who, you know, wanted to hear what I had to say about students and their concerns. But there are also members of administration, in all levels high low whatever, who really do not want to hear it from SGA, you know they have a bad view of SGA. It’s you know, there was one bad president. Two years ago, or maybe there were a couple bad presidents and because of that they discredit the whole organization I mean, look at the President’s Student Advisory Council. There’s a whole Council of Students appointed by Dean’s and other administrators to represent students, but there’s also an organization who has elections to represent students but who does the President go to he goes to the Presidential Student Advisory Council and that’s very frustrating. That was definitely a bad part of being in SGA because you knew you had this platform but you only had the platform when it was convenient, and that’s of course it’s frustrating and then it’s not just, I don’t want to, like, I don’t want to put single hand blame on anyone. And then the second most frustrating part I’d say is the lack of communications with students, you know COVID was a nice excuse. What I mean by that is, I did not have a lot of contact with students and the excuse for that is well COVID happened because I had a lot of goals to get, you know to contact students. And we tried in a lot of ways but you know you can’t make students care and I’m not saying students don’t care certainly students care you know they care about their classes, they care about whether or not they have parking etc. But I understand why it gets tiring, but also it’s it’s almost impossible to represent people to people like administration, without them backing you, it’s you know, it shouldn’t be that way, I should be able to walk into a meeting room with the President’s Cabinet and say this is how students feel and that’s the end of it, but no that the second you say the students feel a different way than they do they want data showing Well, are you sure they don’t feel that way it’s like well I won an election, but whatever. Let’s try to find that data. And when students are already. I forgot what they called it but you know, like, technologically tired after the COVID pandemic they’re tired of being online, they don’t want to fill out a survey for SGA, so that was that was sad, I don’t blame the students at all for that. That was just a sad part of the job, hard part.