Student Union regulars might have noticed something different Thursday in the Tiger Card Office — something LSU President F. King Alexander has been planning for quite some time.
The Tiger Card Office and Olinde Career Center are both working to provide a quick, convenient and comfortable environment for students interested in obtaining a passport.
“I think the best thing our students can have along with a diploma is a passport,” Alexander said.
“Geaux Travel,” an LSU initiative, is a service provided to students and community members. The University joins others across the nation in the program to get more people to travel.
Those interested can go to the Tiger Card Office to have two passport photos taken for $10. They can then walk down the hall to the Olinde Career Center to have official documentation processed and shipped through the Ricoh Mail Center.
“It’s a one stop shop,” said Kenissa McKay, Communication Manager for the Olinde Career Center.
This fits with what Alexander deems a “visibility and awareness issue.”
“When [the passport office] is in a visible spot,” Alexander said, “We have already seen our numbers grow about 35 percent in the past.”
Alexander’s interest in the program stemmed from his experience at California State University-Long Beach, where the service was already in existence. He made implementing the service his mission for the University upon his arrival three semesters ago.
He was also shocked to discover 293 of the 325 band members who traveled to Dublin, Ireland last summer did not have a passport before the trip. About 193 of them had never even been on an airplane.
“I wonder where those 293 got their passports, if it was more difficult and complicated than it should have been,” Alexander said.
Student participation is not the only outcome anticipated from this innovation.
Harald Leder, director of Study Abroad, thinks the program’s future looks bright. While not a merger, passport accessibility can only help Study Abroad efforts.
“With [‘Geaux Travel’], the intention is that people use the passport to explore the world,” Leder said.
With about 600 enrolled each year, Study Abroad’s current growth target is 10 percent, Leder said.
Alexander, a former Study Abroad student himself, lived in England for two years during the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany and the brink of apartheid in South Africa, saying it was his best college experience.
“The more we expand our students’ ability to understand international travel,” he said, “I think the stronger their entire collegiate experience will be.”