Students were able to see where candidates stand on issues regarding resources for colleges, pass-fail system grading and returning to in-person semester during the first-ever Student Government Association (SGA) executive ticket debate Tuesday.
The debate was hosted by the Center for Student Involvement and Student Media live on the UTRGV Student Life Facebook page and moderated by The Rider reporters Sol Garcia and Alejandra Yañez.
The debate was between the two executive teams running for SGA this year: Team Vision United and Team Change.
Team Vision United consists of presidential candidate Jose Pablo Rojas, vice presidential candidate for Edinburg Anacette Cantu and vice presidential candidate for Brownville Yahia Omar Al-Qudah.
Team Change is made up of presidential candidate Michael White, vice presidential candidate for Edinburg Daniela Ramirez and vice presidential candidate for Brownsville Leticia Villarreal.
After the opening statements from both tickets, moderator Garcia opened the debate by asking how Team Vision United plans to increase resources for the College of Liberal Arts and the Fine Arts. Rojas responded to the question.
“What we will do is literally go out and seek out the situations that are going on in these colleges, what exactly is needing to be done,” he said.
White responded on behalf of Team Change that both colleges are getting an abundance of funds.
“Where is that money going? Why isn’t it being put back into the facilities, the building, the teachers?,” White said. “Because the biggest issue right now is providing enough professors for the interested students like in the political science degree and so many more.”
The debate then shifted to Team Change.
Moderator Yañez asked Team Change how they plan to get professors and administrators on board for Vaquero Day, a day in which students can take a break from assignments and exams.
Ramirez answered that they plan to add Vaquero Day to Student Rights and Responsibilities, allowing students to choose when they need the day off.
“Of course, they would have certain limitations so that students don’t abuse the power of requesting these types of days off,” Ramirez said. “We were thinking of a minimum of 12 hours.”
Rojas responded to Team Changes saying that students have advocated against the idea of Vaquero Day.
“Professors are going to be piling up work whenever classes resume,” We see it right now in Spring Break. After Spring Break, professors are up and running again and they have already administered even more work than students had before Spring Break.”
As the debate went on, Team Change was asked by Yañez why they think the pass-fail grading system should be reintroduced.
White explained how other UT system schools still use the grading system.
“Even now, we are still going through the pandemic, there are still people trying to get fully vaccinated, there are still people day in/day out through Zoom,” he said. “So they can then feel less stressed for what they’ve done already.”
Rojas said that although it can help some students, there are other problems with the pass-fail grading system.
“Sometimes, these pass or fail systems don’t help GPA at all; it doesn’t even impact it,” he said. “Sometimes financial aid gets affected.”
Al-Qudah also mentioned that bringing this system back will force professors and degree plans to change entirely.
“You also have to keep in mind when it comes to the pass and fail system, the first time that it was introduced and made by UTRGV, many things had to be changed by professors and by specific degree plans,” he said. “So we can’t just be so easily to say that we want these pass and fail systems and there we go.”
Another issue that came up during the debate was the lack of awareness students have of SGA. Yañez asked Team Vision United why SGA has struggled to make its presence known and what they can do about it.
Al-Qudah answered that his team acknowledges the problem and have been trying to solve the issue.
“We have been writing amendments to make SGA more inclusive by lowering the eligibility of requirements so that more students can be a part of SGA and the retention rate can be higher,” Al-Qudah said.
White also got to respond to the question on behalf of Team Change explaining how his team can spread awareness of the association.
“We come from a lot of experience in event programming,” he said. “We know exactly how to bring in people to these events”
Villarreal of Team Change explained how they will bring people in.
“We want to host town halls,” Villarreal said. “That we’re gonna have speakers such as pre-med speakers, medical students, law students, we want to bring these resources to all UTRGV students.”
Before the closing remarks, both executive tickets were asked when they will have students return to classes and how they will do so safely.
Both tickets agreed that they wanted to ask students and see what a majority of them wanted to do and if they do return to in person classes, that they will ensure students take the proper safety precautions.
Al-Qudah of Team Vision United spoke of the importance of class modalities.
“Course modalities is the way for the future,” he said. “Having multiple options for students is the way to go that can allow students to be the most comfortable in scheduling how their life is planned out.”
Despite their shared stance on returning to classes, Ramirez of Team Change pointed out a particular photo from Team Vision United.
“On your campaign marketing,” Ramirez said. “You were sitting on the clear marked X on a transportation services…you guys were not following the guidelines the university was putting. How do we expect you guys as our future leaders to follow the guidelines?”
Students can still vote for their college and executive representatives in the SGA via their UTRGV email. Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. March 31.
To view the debate in its entirety, visit the UTRGV Student Life Facebook page.
