At the Student Government Association third general meeting, Speaker of the Senate Alexander Hennel swore in SGA’s vice president Michael Valdez as the new Student Body President. An attendee at the meeting informed The Paisano that this was done without an election.
SGA presented their fiscal year 2025-2026 Expense/Reconciliation Report, revealing an opening balance of $47,000.
The highest item on the report was $9,978.25 for Homecoming T-shirts.
Their second highest item was $4,000 for Zen Garden, Meditation Headphone Rental Intention Bracelets and Air Plants for Earth Day.
SGA will be hosting Mental Health First-Aid Training on March 25 and April 25. As indicated on their website, one of their two overall major initiatives is Mental Health First-Aid Training. Their 2025-2026 Expense/Reconciliation Report detailed that on Oct. 18, 2025, they paid $215 to fund eight students’ training, accounting for 0.7% of their spending.
Another one of SGA’s two overall major initiatives are menstrual hygiene, products and dispensers. The 2025-2026 Expense/Reconciliation Report did not detail any purchase of menstrual products.
The spreadsheet also outlined that the fall 2025 president received a stipend of $1,500 and the vice president received $750. The fall 2025 Speaker of the Senate, Dictator of Communications and the Business Affairs Chair all received a $300 stipend.
After 52 expenditures, their current balance is $19,965.17. As of March 2, the 2025-2026 SGA budget is not accessible online.
Hennel led the meeting into an open forum. This forum allowed officers to address the students’ concerns.
One of the two female students in attendance, a senior computer science major, who requested to stay anonymous, raised an issue.
“I know last year SGA was working on having free menstrual products in the women’s restroom. I was wondering if there was any update on that,” they asked.
“Right now, I’m just getting integrated into this role,” Business Affairs Chair Ryan Endsley said. “I know it’s not everywhere right now. It’s our mission as SGA to get more involved in that. It’s just a long process of getting the approvals.”
Director of the Student Involvement Center Chantea’ Swinson-Rhoe followed after Endsley’s comment, addressing menstrual product accessibility.
“SGA is doing all the heavy lifting, making all the purchases, but the whole budget can’t just solely go to that, so we have a meeting next week to discuss with several departments and areas on how we can all continue to support this initiative,” Swinson-Rhoe said.
The Paisano asked where students could find out how the budget is being spent.
“The budget is open to any student if they want to come in and ask to review it with our Treasurer,” Hennel said.
Treasurer Mario Vento’s office hours are on Wednesdays from 2-4 p.m.
“Will you be able to access old budgets from previous years,” freshman philosophy major John Finklea asked.
“If you are referring to The Paisano, those requests have already been put in place. They are an official open records request,” Swinson-Rhoe said.
Finklea is not involved in The Paisano and was asking as a student.
“So [The Paisano will] have access to a deeper level than most students,” Hennel continued.
“So [The Paisano] will, but not right now?” Finklea asked.
“Anything else for open forum?” Swinson-Rhoe responded, closing the conversation.
Swinson-Rhoe later added that SGA is inquiring about supplying feminine hygiene products to the Downtown Campus.
The meeting informed attendees of events students can attend such as Jazz night and Anxiety toolkit on March 3, Rowdy Wing Fling on March 5, Roadrunner Remembrance Ceremony on March 20, UTSA Alumni Spurs Night on March 21 and Etiquette Dinner on March 25.