The upper back corner of the Student Union features an incredible view of tractors, port-o-potties and storage units on rest from another day of construction. Sitting above it, accessible only through the front, the Atchafalaya Room waits patiently for senators to fill the space necessary to better improve different aspects of this campus each Wednesday night. The secrets of the room, however, are in dire need of unleashing, and the time has come for the students to see the light – or lack thereof – for themselves. The Atchafalaya Room is the home of the legislative branch of Student Government, with weekly meetings held every Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. “sharp.” I say “sharp” only as a guideline. Each session regularly starts about three or four minutes late, depending on how quickly the eager senators seat themselves. The only thing missing from these meetings, other than a sense of order, is more students. During this past Wednesday’s adventure, I had the pleasure of being joined by some friends from the Quad. At the end of the meeting, I stepped outside to overlook the construction site with two of them and a cigarette. One pointed out, “I didn’t know this room existed. Is this all Student Government does?” I quickly retorted, saying Student Government is mostly about procedure, as constant resolution-writing and bill-amending isn’t the easiest of jobs for today’s collegian. My friend fired back, “Why does this keep looking like a big secret?”
I didn’t have such a snappy answer to that question. It’s taken a fair share of patience and dedication to be motivated to attend these meetings, held in the very back corner, hidden from the front of the Student Union. I blog partly because of the responsibility attached to live-blogging every aspect of the University’s student-based legislative body. The other part involves getting paid to do so. After two meetings, I’d already had enough. The senators collectively, not individually, projected such an ego about themselves; it was hard not to think of SG as some bastard stepchild of an actual legislative body. I figured as much to expect a sort-of cavalier attitude toward these meetings, especially after knowing friends who’d done it before and winced with every feature of my blog. One former senator said, “When I read your blog, I remembered instantly how it felt to be at those meetings. Each step you took in re-creating what happened in the room made me remember just how [expletive deleted] those meetings were.” Most of the meetings are boring enough, with one or two juicy highlights. This past Wednesday’s convocation featured two former senators in the latest episode of the new hit series, “Tear SG a New One to their Faces.” The first in this two-part series was former senator Patrick Esfeller, amid a lawsuit against the University. Esfeller felt inclined to speak in front of SG in reference to a student, Robert Ingram, who came before SG two weeks ago. Ingram brought the subject of poor living conditions at East Laville – including unpredictable water color from the faucets and surprisingly fragile ceilings – to the attention of SG, only to have his request for a resolution or even diplomatic meeting with the administration denied. The first question for Ingram after finishing his speech came from UCFY senator Kyle Chandler and, despite his best attempts to be helpful, only came off as the new definition of smarmy, as he egotistically asked, “Do you have any suggestion where we could find hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix these things?” As the old saying goes, “A fool and his LSU Student Government Senate seat are soon parted.” Esfeller proceeded to berate the senators to their faces, correctly championing the cause of the casual collegian: “Many of you don’t understand why students don’t care about Student Government. Do you want me to answer that for you? I’ll tell you why, and I know it’s true because so many people have said the same thing repeatedly to me. People don’t care about SG because SG doesn’t care about them!” He was immediately followed by opinion columnist and former Senate Finance Chairman Donald Hodge, present to bring up a discrepancy in funds and spending. Any expenditure made by means of a surplus must be approved by a Senate Legislative Instrument, according to Hodge. By checking the numbers and concurrent resolutions, Hodge found inconsistencies that lead him to claim that, in terms of SG, “It seems as though the wheels have finally fallen off of the bus.” We’re all busy, and I don’t expect anyone to follow through on this call. But SG cannot run in the back corner of both our Student Union and our minds. An ideal SG meeting would have the students in the back outnumbering the senators. Then again, maybe I’m just an idealist. Oh, well.
—-Contact Eric Freeman Jr at [email protected]