On Thursday, Jan. 25, UTSA’s Student Government Association (SGA) held its first general assembly of the Spring 2024 semester. SGA tackled the election of a new Deputy Speaker, the nomination of multiple deputy chairs and President Zachary Nepote presented the SGA’s strategic refresh plan for the upcoming term.
During the meeting’s open forum, SGA heard from a representative for the UTSA Center for Civic Engagement, who will be holding a deputy voting registrar training session in conjunction with Bexar County. The training session will be held on campus in the HEB Student Union’s Pecan Room on Jan. 29 at 3 p.m. Those wishing to participate must be a resident of Bexar County. Bexar County also offers virtual voter registrar training; more information can be found on Bexar County’s website.
Following the open forum, SGA conducted an internal election for Deputy Speaker of the Senate. This election follows former Speaker of the Senate Karli Robertson’s departure, with former Deputy Speaker Ryan Faidley filling the vacant position.
Two individuals were nominated for the position, Senator Vasquez and Senator Houston. Vasquez won 21-1, with two senators abstaining from the vote.
The assembly then proceeded to nominate senators for committee chairs. All four committee chair positions were left vacant with the conclusion of the Fall 2023 semester. Senator Powell was nominated and confirmed as the chair for the Business Affairs Committee; Senator Gonzalez was nominated and confirmed as the chair for the Academic Affairs Committee; and Senator Segovia was nominated and confirmed as the chair for the Sustainability Committee.
Following these nominations, the assembly moved on to open nominations for the Internal Affairs and Financial Affairs Committees. Traditionally, the Student Body Treasurer would be the chair for the Financial Affairs Committee, but with the position being vacant, a new chair was needed.
Senator Gather was nominated to chair the Financial Affairs Committee, and Senator Rodriguez was nominated to chair the Internal Affairs Committee. Nepote motioned for a slate confirmation, and both chairs were elected unanimously.
Following these committee chair nominations, the assembly moved on to the Strategic Plan Refresh, presented by Nepote. Nepote stated that his office would be working closely with Dean of Students LT Robinson to explore what career readiness standards UTSA has for its student workers and will be working to refine them to ensure that student workers are ready to enter the workforce post-graduation. Additionally, Nepote will be working with President Eighmy’s office on raising student wages based on the years of experience they have working at the university.
For committee focuses, Nepote stated that the Student Affairs Committee would focus on planning the University Life Awards and the SGA Field Day, and the Sustainability Committee would focus on coordinating the 2024 SGA Earth Day Fair.
The Business Affairs committee will be working in conjunction with liaisons from UTSA Housing and Residence Life to coordinate housing forums for new and returning students. They will also be coordinating another Downtown Campus town hall for the coming semester and hope to address low attendance issues experienced previously.
The Academic Affairs Committee will be working with campus partners to expand open education resources and will meet with the Open Educational Resource Office to discuss student engagement planning. The committee will also continue an initiative to increase education on graduate school opportunities at UTSA.
SGA will hold the State of the Student Body Address on Thursday, Feb. 1 in the Student Union Window Lounge, across from the Rowdy Campus Bookstore.
The next SGA general assembly will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 8 at the Harris-Travis Room (2.202 and 2.212) in the H-E-B Student Union, and all UTSA students are welcome to attend.
