The LSU Student Senate passed an executive order to create a commission to represent students at the Louisiana State Legislature.
“The Student Advocacy Commission is going to be our permanent effort at the State Capitol to increase student presence,” Mahtook said. “This year we saw how much students at the capitol can do. We want to make sure that doesn’t fall by the wayside. We wanted a set group every year that would be able to really enforce the student opinion.”
Myles Sonnier, the SG State Capitol adviser, said the commission is open to all students, not only SG members. There will be an application and interview process to sit on the commission.
“We’re going to be here to remind legislators that we remember their promises during campaigns,” Sonnier said. “We look forward to working with them here in Baton Rouge to make sure that higher education is their top priority like they said it was.”
SG, the LSU Alumni Association and Geaux Vote LSU organized a march on the State Capitol to protest the potential budget cuts to higher education in April. The Student Advocacy Commission would be tasked with handling similar events.
SG chief adviser Zack Faircloth joined Mahtook and Sonnier in front of the Senate to speak on the initiative, as well as a “Student Bill of Rights,” which would address several student concerns.
Faircloth said items such as professors posting mid-semester and final grades on time and test retakes for medical excuses would be included on the list.
Mahtook said the initiative will begin this semester and hopes there will be something more official in the spring. He said he wants it to be a “town hall” collaboration with students from across campus participating, not just SG.
“The way I picture this — and the way president Mahtook pictures this — is getting a list together of basic things that we, as tuition-paying students, believe we should be getting from this university,” Faircloth said.
Faircloth also urged senators to vote in the upcoming gubernatorial election, saying low student voting numbers are a big reason why higher education is a target for budget cuts.