Timothy Chapman
04/17/2023
On March 29 Art junior Annie Snelson made an instagram post that caught a lot of attention, garnering 528 likes as of April 14, leading to a meeting between students and UTRGV leadership so that art students could share their grievances.
The post featured 10 photos inside the UTRGV Brownsville art building depicting disrepair and unhygienic conditions.
Snelson decided to finally speak up about the issues in the art building after noticing several “disgusting” things, the first of which was the air conditioning not working and a “sewage” smell coming into the classrooms.
“The AC doesn’t work, it stinks like sewage a lot of the time, which that’s the first thing I noticed when I walked into the art building. I was like it smells bad in here and it just never went away, and nobody said anything, I was like ‘are you guys smelling this too?’ It’s stuff like that, builds up where you’re like, there’s a million gross things in here and why is everyone just comfortable with it,” Snelson said.
Snelson said rat traps are a common sight around the Brownsville art building as a method to deal with the rodent problem. The worst thing she has heard so far from other students was when a black sludge made of rodent material was dripping from the air vents after maintenance was working in that area.
“ It was like rat fur and feces and urine in the vents, so thick it was dripping on the floor and that was right above the professor’s vent. He’s an old man with health issues already. I’m explaining this because it was just so disappointing that I was like, this man cleans rat poop off his desk and then he has to breathe that in all day. We don’t know how many more vents are like that or who else is breathing that in.
Studio Art junior Yental Marquez said she understands having to pay for class materials such as books but it frustrates her when she has to pay out of her own pocket for toiletry items. Items such as basic toilet paper are commonly not found in the bathrooms.
“I don’t mind paying for paints, canvases, but when it comes to I have to buy toilet paper and napkins for using the restroom and I have to buy just basic things that I feel like should be provided, but yeah we do have to pay for usually everything and more out of pocket,” Marquez said.
Marquez said it is frustrating to see the very minimal changes that have been done in the art building within the couple years that she has been a student at UTRGV, especially since now the issue has become a health concern.
“I’ve been here for two years and we get like two changes in the building which don’t really do much, I just don’t understand why we can’t get anything done because at this point it’s about our students’ health as well,” Marquez said.
Photo courtesy/ Yental Marquez
Photo courtesy/ Yental Marquez
Master of Fine Arts [MFA] student and graduate assistant at UTRGV Kimberly Sandoval said there is a feminine product dispenser that has not been inspected since 1999, which is alarming since the majority of the students are female.
“The school of art and design, specifically in Brownsville is predominately female, we get maybe one or two guys in a class to the point where it almost becomes a title IX issue because we don’t even have pad dispensers, we don’t even have anything for tampons. It became a point where one of our students, our male students, didn’t like it so much that he decided to bring us stuff, he decided to kind of make us a little area so we can have pads, we can have tampons, we had that access to that,” Sandoval said.
photo courtesy/ Yental Marquez
Sandoval said another issue that is frustrating students is that both art buildings in Brownsville and Edinburg are not connected to the main campus, but it was not always this way in Brownsville.
“I’ve talked to students that honestly have been around as long as I have, but they went to UTPA and they’re like yeah the arts used to be on the main campus, I don’t know why they even thought to remove it from the campus, now it’s so closed off, everything is so different and they see that. So it’s just this whole thing like almost isolation that happens,” Sandoval said.
School of Art and Design Director Ed Pogue said he was not sure what caused the art building to be in the current state that it is now, but it’s difficult for UTRGV to make changes due to the building being a shared space with Texas Southmost College (TSC)
“There’s all kinds of issues with that, it is a leased space meaning that UTRGV leases the space so that makes things a lot more complicated because UTRGV just can’t go in and just take care of things right away, there’s a process of approval that is needed because it is a leased space so that makes it a little more complicated as well,” Pogue said.
TSC is a community college located in Brownsville and shares many facilities with the UTRGV Brownsville campus.
Pogue said the school of art and design is currently focusing on issues that can be fixed now such as the rodent problem, but long term issues that need a lot of planning to be fixed like the limited space issues are also under review.
“Yeah I mean we’re working, we’re working on the limitations with the space, we have a new computer lab that will be going in, it will be operational in the fall, we’re going to be looking at purchasing some new furniture, so we have done a few small things,” Pogue said.
A meeting was held on April 12 where the students got to present to the UTRGV art department leadership and Studio Art junior Yental Marquez had this to say through a text message about how the meeting went.
“It went well turnout wise! Everyone was passionate. We got them [Director, Dean and Provost] to agree to purchase new furniture, but nothing else since they stated there was a contract with TSC not to obstruct the building so they can’t fix the ceiling or walls etc… They also mentioned getting a new building, but that it would most likely take years unfortunately,” Marquez said.
