The Student Government Association will have a new president in June. Sophomore operations chain supply management major Sergio Baltazar was elected on April 22 and ran independently.

Despite being discouraged to run as an independent, Baltazar felt that he would be able to accomplish more during the campaigning process if he ran without a party.

Baltazar, 22, is an international student from Guadalajara, Mexico. While visiting friends in El Paso, Baltazar stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on University Avenue, and said he found himself exploring, like he usually does when he visits a new place.

He walked onto campus and immediately thought that UTEP would be out of his price range. To his surprise he found out that UTEP was affordable, more so than the universities in Guadalajara.

Baltazar moved to El Paso and immediately began taking classes at UTEP. In his two years at the university he dove into extracurricular activities.

He was recently the president of Visión México, president of his pledge class for Delta Sigma Pi, a business fraternity, and a member of Alpha Phi Omega, a community service fraternity.

Baltazar said that he believed he made the smart decision to run as an independent during the SGA race.

“I was not agreeing with the way they were running things because SGA has a huge potential for us as students here and most students don’t know what SGA is,” Baltazar said. “Here there are people that actually think that SGA people are above the other students and it’s not supposed to be that way. It is supposed to be that we are under students trying to get things done.”

During his campaign, Baltazar visited different colleges around campus and asked students what they felt needed to get done.

Baltazar pointed out that the fine arts students had a lot to say and that they often feel excluded from the university. He also said he spoke to a psychology student who voiced his concerns over the water fountains in the psychology building that are out of service.

Although he is nervous that he won’t be able to address to all of the students’ concerns, he said that he hopes he can do the best he can to engage students more with SGA.

“I want to make a difference by making SGA approachable and also having SGA go to the students and ask them what they need,” Baltazar said. Some of his key propositions during his campaign were to increase the number of shaded areas on campus, better and more transparent budget allocations for students, implementation of nap stations around campus and transportation from the international bridges for students.

Baltazar said that he is excited to begin his presidency, which begins June 1. He also said that he is grateful to everyone who spoke to him and took the time to vote.

“I want to thank everyone who believed in me,” Baltazar said. “It’s kind of fascinating how other people actually believe in other people. That gives me the confidence to work hard and to accomplish everything I said.”

Amanda Guillen may be reached at [email protected].