This SGA meeting took place on February 28th, 2024
Climate Check
Senior Senator Lucy Orosco asked if anything could be done about the very old library charging ports, and President Danny Nguyen notified her that the dean of the library, Benjamin Harris, would be the person to ask. Junior Senator Joy Areola gave an update about her pedestrian safety mission.
Staff Chat: Trinity Dining
Chase Taylor, resident district manager, and Kristin Alderete, marketing director, presented on behalf of Trinity Dining. They opened with a recap of the fall semester, sharing facts like how their total patron count was 128,000, La Mesa was the most popular spot in Mabee and students consumed over 35,000 pounds of fresh produce. Taylor encouraged student entities to take advantage of the opportunity for partnerships that Mabee station takeovers provided.
Taylor and Alderete presented some upcoming events for the spring semester, including DelightFUL week and a farmer’s market slated for April 23. They recapped the changes they had made to retail dining options according to student input, including adding El Burro to the student center, bringing the ImmuniTEA boba teas to the campus markets, installing the Farmer’s Fridge vending machine and supplementing BRKFST & CO with a F’real milkshake machine.
In the future, Taylor wants to potentially switch out the Mabee coffee shop with an ImmuniTEA location, bring in a ramen vending machine for the Center for Sciences and Innovation (CSI) and add a milkshake machine to Legends Burger Co. as well. Taylor and Alderete want to see more students going to Skyline, since it seems as though many students do not realize lunch at Skyline is open to students.
A couple of SGA members raised concerns about the consistency of CSI market hours, and Taylor said he would look into it. Sophomore Senators Odi Aneji and Bocar Diagana brought up issues with the lack of variety in protein options at Mabee, the lack of fish and the abundance of pork, respectively, and Taylor stressed that the balance of protein options was still something they were navigating and trying to balance correctly.
Senator Orosco asked about whether there would be more vendors coming to Taste of San Antonio, like old Revolve favorite Panda Express. Taylor said that they would look into other options and encourage students to pass along local restaurant ideas, and he said that they were trying to move away from having so many fast food options. Senator Areola, however, argued that students would be amenable to bringing fast food options back considering the expense of many of the current dining options.
Staff Chat: Residential Life
Rachel Boaz Toppel, interim residential life director, and Stephanie Keith, assistant director for housing operations, presented about the housing selection process. They focused on changes and upgrades for the following cycle.
For the first time in a while, seniors will go first in the housing selection process, after 66% of rising seniors indicated a desire to live on campus. Many of those seniors wanted to live in the City Vista apartments in particular, which, paired with rising junior demand, guided Residential Life to have a dedicated, earlier selection period for rising juniors and seniors wanting to live in City Vista to allow them to make other living arrangements in a timely manner if they do not make it into the apartments.
They discussed efforts to support students with accommodations, primarily by offering more individualized communication. They also announced that all carpets would be removed from residential halls, a kitchen would be added to the North/South lounge and a new campus housing fair would be introduced to show students all that residential life has to offer.
Junior Senator Allison Waters asked about the no-preference, random number system used in assigning selection times and brought up her concern about how that would affect full suites. Keith explained that, yes, the only factor in terms of any sort of preference was class year, but from there, the order was totally random. Having a larger suite does, however, increase a group’s odds of getting a better time slot since they can use the earliest slot one of the group members gets assigned. Assistant Treasurer Avery Lim suggested posting more housing information on Instagram.
Emergency Funding
Student Government Association — Block Party. Fully funded $10,491.93.
DEI Chair Trinity Hatchett and Senator Areola presented a funding proposal for an upcoming block party put on by SGA. The event will take place on April 19 at 2 p.m., placed intentionally during the last few weeks of classes to provide some fun before finals begin. DEI Chair Hatchett and Senator Areola stressed that they were proposing their plan now in order to be able to reserve food trucks for the event so that students can receive meal tickets for a variety of catering options. According to DEI Chair Hatchett, there would be a second funding request at a later point for the event’s different activities, which will follow a carnival or festival theme.
Vice President Caterina Mora asked about the expected size of the event, to which DEI Chair Hatchett said that she expected faculty and staff would join students at the event, hoping that turnout would surpass that of a tailgating event. Junior Senator Andrew Phillips questioned how much the second proposal would amount to, leading Senator Areola to estimate that their following proposal would likely be around the same cost as this one. Senator Diagana motioned to fully fund the proposal, seconded by Senator Aneji. The motion passed.
SGA Allocation Increase ProposalPresident Nguyen presented to SGA to determine what percentage of the Student Activity Fund (SAF) members think should be allocated to SGA for the upcoming year. Important to note, the number they were voting on would not immediately pass, rather it would go on the upcoming SGA ballot for student votes.
Due to the SGA’s recent growth expanding its funding, increasing its presence and developing its programming, and thus growing expenditures, President Nguyen raised the possibility of increasing SGA’s allocation of the SAF from 2% to 3%, 3.5% or 4%. Advisor suggested not exceeding 3.5% and said that 3% would put them in line with other USOs. After a few rounds of voting, the members of SGA ultimately landed on a 3.25% compromise.
Constitutional Review
Senator Phillips went through some proposed amendments to the SGA constitution. These amendments are set to appear on the upcoming ballot, and Senator Phillips said that there would be fewer items on docket so the decisions were not as overwhelming as they might have been in past years.
The first proposed addition to the constitution would prevent a student from holding presidential (or equivalent executive) roles of a University Sponsored Organization and a Registered Student Organization at the same time. This amendment was voted to be included on the SGA ballot. The second proposed addition stated that all allocations shall adhere to the Student Organization Handbook, which all members of SGA voted to appear on the ballot. A proposed removal stating that travel funding for second semester trips may be requested during the first semester was also added to the ballot.
