This message came to me a few minutes ago from the UTPA SGA president. I will not add any commentary but will let you all see it as you deserve to see it as it is written. Mr. Del Barrio, I contact you because there has been a lot of misinformation regarding the process of selection of the UTRGV mascot and colors. I will arrange my message in bullet points to make it easier for you to understand. 1. I appreciate the alumni’s effort to keep the Bronc. I understand it as well, and to some extent support it. 2. The Student Government Associations of UTPA and UTB have been unfairly attacked by your petition and by several supporters of your campaign. The reasons are the following: a. The student committee I had the honor of appointing and co-chairing was not made up exclusively of SGA members. The committee was comprised of student athletes, leaders of our programing board, leaders of our campus’ publications, as well as from uninvolved students and students from other areas of our campus. b. As students we have the right to have a say in the decision making of the university. To say that students should not be major stakeholders in the process of building OUR new university and OUR new identity would be a mistake. This mistake would be as unfortunate as if we, the students, said alumni should not have a voice in this process because you are no longer a student here. A process like this needs input from both the past and the present. 3. The media has been mishandling information tremendously. The notion that the mascots both President Santillana and I presented are the “finalists” is a wrong and uninformed statement. 4. There were statements from Dr. Guy Bailey, UTRGV president, and from The University of Texas System that were sent to the campus community through email. They clearly stated there would be two steering committees: a. One comprised of students, to be chaired by both UTB and UTPA student body presidents (this committee met this past Monday), b. and the second one comprised of alumni, faculty, staff, and students. This committee is also chaired by President Santillana and I. This committee is in charge making FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS for mascot and colors. I assume you are not aware that this committee has not met yet. 5. My support for the alumni’s effort to keep the Bronc ends when they start belittling the students that elected me, and that I proudly represent. The mascot and color options that have been going around for a few days will be up for voting from the student bodies ONLY. The choices with the most votes will be brought up for consideration to the second steering committee (as stated above). The faculty, alumni, and staff have the right to employ whatever methods they see fit to select the recommendations they would like to present to the committee. I would recommend that you contact the alumni association to work with them and get more informed on the whole process before making unfair assumptions against student leaders who have been doing an excellent job to include the community in the process of transitioning into UTRGV. Respectfully yours, Alberto Adame President, Student Government Association The University of Texas-Pan America