As the spring semester comes to a close, UTEP’s Student Government Association (SGA) announced their new representatives for the upcoming school year. Students cast their ballots on April 17 and 18 to help decide who will be the new team of student leaders.

The elected SGA Vice President of External Affairs is America Alvarez. Alvarez was previously the Collegiate Senator for Graduate School. However, now being the vice president for external affairs, she said she would like to bridge the gap of communication at UTEP.

“The way I would like to treat this position really serves as the liaison between student government and administration including all the departments, and the student body,” Alvarez said. “Because I feel like there is a lack of communication or miscommunication going on in between student body and student government.” 

In her previous term, Alvarez worked on several projects that were tailored towards the students. She says there is a lot of planning that happens behind the scenes that also goes unappreciated.

“I would definitely like to make it to where not only do students know about SGA in general, but they know who the members are, and what the specific members are doing, because at the end of the day we are here to serve each other and serve you all (students).” 

The elected SGA Vice President of Internal Affairs is Isai Miramontes who previously a Senator-At-Large. During his time as senator, Miramontes became co-author of “Picks 100”, a podcast where students, faculty and community members, would be asked about their feelings towards UTEP. With this project, Miramontes said he found a passion in listening to others. 

“I really like that sense of wanting to hear and continuously hear what people have to say,” Miramontes said. “Sometimes I find myself just asking random people ‘What do you like about UTEP?’, ‘What don’t you like about UTEP’, ‘If you could change something, what would you change?’, and just these small questions have given me a very good input, so having that the responsibility to hear (but) actually loving to hear people has been (amazing).” 

Elected SGA President Edgar Loya was previously the Vice President of Internal Affairs. During his experience with SGA, Loya said his favorite aspect so far has been listening to the students’ concerns and having the ability to do something about it. 

“That’s the best part about being a (student) representative, you are able to take what every (student) comes up with and showcase that, ‘Hey, you know what I can do it, we all can go ahead and make a difference,’” Loya said. 

As the new president, Loya would like to reassure students that SGA will always be for the students.

“The one message I do want to emphasize, and I hope our administration goes through, is that we want to put students in the center of decision making,” Loya said. “A lot of times its easy for us, once we are in these positions, to feel as if our decisions should come just from our personal opinions and biases, but instead I want our SGA to focus on putting the students first at the end of the day.”

The new faces of SGA are here to serve the students. With countless projects and committees, the SGA team is dedicated to giving students the best possible experience at UTEP no matter who is elected. 

Sofia Sierra is the web and copy editor and may be reached at [email protected].