After a year in office, Student Government President John Woodard and Vice President Taylor Parks said they’ve accomplished most of their goals.
“This experience was like walking through a kitchen of your favorite restaurant, the process isn’t very pretty but it’s interesting to see how things are done,” Woodard said.
By working on several initiatives presented during their campaign, Woodard and Parks saw how things were implemented through the University.
“I never realized how much goes into planning things for the student body,” Parks said. “You have to think of everybody and programs that benefit everyone.”
Woodard and Parks completed several of the initiatives they promised during their campaign.
They began several University programs they hope will become LSU traditions, including Senior Stride, in which graduating seniors reflect on their memories at the University while giving back to the community by donating items to the One Stop Homeless Services Center in Baton Rouge. They implemented Ole War Skule week, which honors LSU ROTC, veteran students and active duty servicemen and women.
The pair completed other initiatives like online study room reservation systems, the Academic Major Fair and an internship liaison for each college. The Academic Major Fair occurred this year and gave students the opportunity to interact with senior college advisors about their colleges. An internship liaison was created to represent Career Services for each college to help students with internship opportunities.
While Woodard and Parks accomplished many initiatives, several are still in the works.
The “Tailored Tiger” Career Services prep shop will be in the new Career Center and will have business attire for rent. Parks and Woodard hope to see this center open by the summer. SG will also be working with Mayor-President Kip Holden to ensure that students’ needs are prioritized in the Nicholson Drive Development project. This project will redevelop the entire area, including apartments and buildings.
Woodard has been working with construction planners on the project and is providing input from the student body. An online syllabus database is also being developed to help students learn more about classes before scheduling.
While many of their goals were accomplished, Woodard and Parks decided to discard some of their initiatives.
“We acted upon what we said we wanted to do, and we didn’t try to limit ourselves on only our push card initiatives,” Woodard said
They prioritized problems with summer football tickets instead of focusing on providing water bottles at football games. Woodard worked with the Athletics Department to make sure students received tickets, even if their informational e-mail went to
spam.
The pair also did not make bus route maps at the University. Parks said they didn’t want to make a map if the bus routes were going to change with the upcoming bus contract.
Both Woodard and Parks will be embarking on separate journeys after this year. Parks will go to Texas A&M for her doctorate in psychology, while Woodard will graduate in December and pursue a master’s in business administration.
Woodard said at the end of his term, he was surprised by how much he enjoyed his position.
“Lots of people say they would never [be SG president] again, but I would do it in a heartbeat,” Woodard said.

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Lauren Duhon

Student Government president John Woodard and vice president Taylor Parks finished their terms and passed the titles to Clay Tufts and Taylor Lambert for the upcoming academic year.