SGA held a brief meeting on Feb. 22 to discuss several upcoming events. Some key takeaways were the election for SGA’s executive positions, including President and several senator seats, which began that day and will close on March 4, and several efforts to increase student representation and involvement on campus.
No one participated in the open forum and the meeting progressed to hearing from liaison reports. Nayelli Lopez, the military-affiliated student liaison, was not present. Manuel Bocanegra and Riley Moehlmann, the housing liaisons, noted they were interested in strengthening relationships between SGA and UTSA Housing. They will host the Rowdy Resource Fair on April 9 from 12 to 4 p.m. at Guadalupe Hall and will have water activities and games. They invited representatives to join One Stop and UTSA Dining as campus resources at the event.
Ana Diaz and Liam Bage followed after the liaisons to discuss their nomination for the Election Commission. Diaz is a junior political science major with a minor in global affairs. She shared that one of her goals for SGA is “to ensure that equality is present in nominations.” Bage is a sophomore history major. Both were approved unanimously by the assembly.
The following in-house candidates were sworn in: Juan Rocha Gomez for the Sophomore class, Emma Lynn for the College of Science, Sebastian Gallegos for Alvarez Hall and Leena Idris for the College for Health, Community and Policy.
Current SGA President Zachary Nepote was not present. However, he will meet with the University Leadership Council on Feb. 28 and President Eighmy on March 6. President Nepote will also participate in a virtual Student Success and Open Educational Resources (OER) panel on March 5 as part of his project to increase free and low-cost textbook use on campus.
For other executive committee reports, Academic Affairs met with OER to finalize their tabling on March 6 to promote the service and with Academic Innovation to discuss artificial intelligence protocols for faculty and students and simple service implementations. Business Affairs spoke with UTSA Dining about late-night breakfast and food accessibility options for vegans and vegetarians, in addition to gluten-free options. Business Affairs is also working on the Downtown Town Hall and other issues identified by students.
Student Affairs spoke with the placemaking council and is interested in finding places to motivate students to spend more time on campus. The sustainability affairs have a meeting on Feb. 28 and are collaborating with outreach community partners such as Keep SA Beautiful and Friends of SA Natural Areas for their Earth Day Fair.
SGA shared their final expenses for Fall 2023, which came in at $8,493.74. As of the meeting, the expenses rose to $9,201.19, totaling the Academic Year expenses at $17,696.06 of their $47,173 budget.
Other announcements include a transition workshop for student organizations from March 19 to 21 at 2 p.m. in the Willow Room of the Student Union (2.02.12) to “assist student organizations in transitioning so they start off the next academic year on a better footnote,” particularly for organizations where Senior officers are graduating.
The next general assembly will be held on Feb. 29 at 5:30 p.m. in the Harris-Travis Room (2.202 and 2.212) in the H-E-B Student Union. All UTSA students are invited to attend.
