Skyler Howell's Fight for Transparency Inside Student Government
And how current student government executive leadership, alongside UTRGV administrators, thwarted a pro-transparency bill
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The Vaquero Insider show, part of Vaquero Radio at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, was a popular and widely-heard program this past school year. It covered issues going on inside student government, to which its cohosts belong, as well as other interesting topics around campus. Those co-hosts are Senators-at-Large, Andrea Gaytan and Skyler Howell. They’re also running for President and Vice President respectively, under the Vaqueros Forward ticket, on a platform of bringing transparency to the association and campus decision-making.
Last month, I received a slew of emails from official student government domains, under the Texas Public Information Act. One of those documents was a letter to student government leadership, and various other student senators, dated 1 November 2024. It dealt with an earlier version of what Howell, its author and mastermind, envisioned. His idea was to help launch a radio program with the university radio station, devoted to making student government more accessible, and communicate to the student body what it was doing.
Given the original idea—SGA Insider—possessed the words ‘student government’, the process had to go through the student senate for approval. However, as we will see in the letter written by Howell up ahead, an unconstitutional ‘Advisory Council’ with no legislative authority within the association’s governing documents was used to thwart his progressive and forward-looking legislation.
The Letter
The subject line read: “Withdrawal of Legislation Due to Executive, Chair, and Advisory Council Obstructions”. Its ‘Importance’ level was listed as ‘High’. Addressed to his colleagues in the legislative branch, it began:
“After much reflection, I am formally withdrawing my legislation, The SGA Insider, from consideration by the Senate due to repeated obstacles and interference from the Executive, persistent delays from the Chair of the Senate, and ongoing opposition from members of the Advisory Council.”
No ‘Advisory Council’ is setout in the student government constitution, as Howell goes on to explain and elaborate. As a member of UTRGV’s founding constitutional convention, myself, this formation of an advisory council is a means to circumvent the student senate.
Howell laid out a timeline of disruptions he experienced while trying to pass the aforementioned legislation.
“For context, this legislation was initially submitted to our Chair on September 16th. It was reviewed and approved by our committee on September 25th, with a motion passed to have it sent out for a committee vote via email.
“However, it was not distributed to the committee for voting until October 17th, nearly a month later, which violates SGA's Rules and Procedures, Section 5.02, Paragraph D. This delay prevented the legislation from being presented on the Senate floor, a requirement now mandated by the recently enacted Legislative Efficiency Act.”
Howell described the role of the ‘Advisory Council’ which, as he highlights, contains a majority of executive and judicial members. A past member of the student government told me that student government ‘advisors’, who are administrative employees of the Dean of Student Office, are on the council. As Howell said in his letter, this council (with no constitutional authority) began making decisions about legislation without telling the student senate, who is supposed to have supreme authority over all legislative matters.
“Between the committee’s initial approval on September 25th and its eventual release to our committee on October 17th, multiple motions were made by the Advisory Council regarding this legislation—demonstrating ongoing interference despite the legislation already being under the standing committee's jurisdiction. The Advisory Council, which lacks authority over legislative matters, took actions on this legislation without notifying the legislative branch, raising concerns about transparency and overreach by the Council. With the majority of Advisory Council members representing the Executive and Judicial branches, such involvement disregards their jurisdictional limits and impedes the legislative process.”
Howell outlined the manner in which this unconstitutional ‘Advisory Council’ obstructed his pro-transparency bill, which included ‘increasingly demanding requests’.
“These motions included increasingly demanding requests for additional materials: first, an outline for the show (which I provided), followed by a request for an agenda and episode script (also provided), and finally, a request for a video example of the show—even though it is audio only. This video request was instructed to be sent by the Vice President Internal, yet it was never communicated to me, further delaying the legislative process. These actions, which should have fallen exclusively under legislative oversight, were made without the legislative branch’s knowledge, allowing the Advisory Council to overstep its role.”
Howell explained how this unconstitutional ‘Advisory Council’ ultimately usurped the powers of the student senate.
“Alarmingly, the Advisory Council’s intended to hold a vote on this legislation, rather than allow it to follow the prescribed legislative process to which the legislative branch votes on all legislation. After being notified, I requested for the legislation to be voted on by our legislative senators, as that is the duty of our branch.
“However, even after I requested that this matter be handled exclusively by the legislative branch, motions continued within the Advisory Council regarding this legislation, further undermining the authority of the legislative branch.”
Apologizing to the senators who worked on the initiative, which was to create a university-wide radio program focused on the happenings inside the Student Government Association (SGA), Howell re-states that the executive and the unconstitutional ‘Advisory Council’ assumed powers they did not have. He adds that knowledge over their maneuvers was withheld from the student senate.
“To our senators, my final message is this: please be mindful of our responsibilities in relation to legislation—duties that are reserved exclusively to us. We cannot allow an advisory council with no legislative authority to impose its power over our branch. We were elected to represent and serve, which includes voting on and being included in legislative discussions. Over the past two months, these discussions and motions were withheld from you all, blocking your rightful involvement in the legislative process. Thank you for your understanding.”
Although the current SGA executive (led by Odalys A. Saenz) stonewalled the ‘SGA Insider’ initiative, Howell ended by stating that the ‘Vaquero Insider’ program, would still be happening. Howell, accompanied by Gaytan as his co-host, successfully hosted their show on Vaquero Radio Mondays at 12:30 throughout last semester and this current one. (You can catch their back-logged episodes on YouTube.) Their show was reported on in the campus press.
“Despite these challenges, the show will continue, but now being called "The Vaquero Insider". This platform will remain open to all senators, allowing each of you to share your perspectives, thoughts, and ideas with the student body. Through The Vaquero Insider, we aim to strengthen student engagement by keeping them informed on campus developments and connected with their senators. This show will be an engaging, positive platform created to benefit the student body as a whole. The show will also have a clear disclaimer to assert the show reflects the Senator's personal perspectives, as opposed to the official stance of SGA.”
Nevertheless, Howell felt the need to assert his First Amendment rights and remind his senate colleagues that hosting a radio program or speaking at all about the internal workings of the association is protected speech.
“Please note that participation in this show is not a violation of any SGA governing documents, as the show will continue as a personal initiative that I have taken, similar to the use of a social media account that allows for us to use our "Senator" titles. Such personal initiatives that have been approved by our wonderful advisors, and any opposition to the personal use of “Senator” titles are an obstruction to our freedom of speech and bring up serious censorship issues.
Kind Regards,
Skyler Howell”
UTRGV SGA Elections 2025
Again, Howell is running for Internal Vice President under the Vaqueros Forward ticket. Gaytan is running for President and Isabella Zapata, who is a current Associate Chief Justice, is running with them for External Vice President. They’re running on a platform of transparency, and giving student government back to students, as well as a proven track record of making gains in that direction.
Opposed to them is Juan Espinoza, who was a senator in SGA in 2023 for about two months before resigning his position; accounting major, Clarissa Rendon, for Internal Vice President; and criminal justice major, Ian Alfaro, for External Vice President, under the VICTORIAM slate. Despite Espinoza’s two month stint in SGA, he lied about this record during the executive candidate forum held on campus April 3 at the Student Union Theatre, hosted by UTRGV Student Media, by saying he has never been in SGA.
The third ticket—Together We Achieve—is led by Orlando Dylan Alvarado, who filed an ‘anonymous’ article of impeachment against Vaqueros Forward ally, Alexis Uscanga, in 2023, in an attack against his free speech. Alvarado did this while he was the First Year Intern director, a position he was appointed to by current SGA President, Odalys A. Saenz. (Unlike the slow-walking Howell’s pro-transparency bill faced, the impeachment against Uscanga was fast-tracked by SGA executives and ‘advisors’.) Alvarado is running alongside Hannah Martinez, who is a current Senator-at-Large and Secretary of the Senate, for External Vice President, and Otweduampong-ba Ewuradwoa Nketiah, who is a current senator for the college of business, for Internal Vice President.
The Vaqueros Forward ticket led by Howell and his trusty sidekick, Andrea Gaytan, is the only executive ticket with a proven and documented legislative (as well as political and now—with their successful radio program—journalistic) track-record of fighting for transparency and democracy at UTRGV’s campuses.
Voting ends Thursday.
More about Vaqueros Forward
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