Chancellor Sean O’Keefe met with students Thursday in Free Speech Plaza for his final Chats with the Chancellor of the semester. Students addressed him with concerns of computer-based testing, campus safety and employee wages.
Samori Camara, African and African-American studies graduate student, told O’Keefe about the Student Equality Commission’s recent concerns about the low wages University custodial and food services employees receive.
“I just want to know what you think about this living wages campaign,” Camara said to O’Keefe as other students campaigned behind the two at a table-sit.
The chancellor responded with a surprised look because he was not aware of the campaign.
O’Keefe said he agreed the wages were low and that Camara and others should lobby legislators, but Camara said he wanted the University to take action now.
“Years could go by and nothing could be done,” Camara said. “It makes perfect sense to exploit people for business, but is it right?”
O’Keefe said one problem is that the University is trying to keep student costs low while offering the best services.
Malak Shah, mechanical engineering junior, confronted O’Keefe about the now abundant “unfair” computer-based tests in Math courses.
“Having tests on a computer is just not fair,” Shah said. “You don’t get partial credit.”
O’Keefe discouraged Shah from starting a petition for the issue because he felt the student had done the right thing in confronting him.
Shah told The Daily Reveille he will see what happens.
“If nothing happens, I’ll try something else,” he said.
Another concern brought to O’Keefe’s attention the lack of surveillance cameras in campus parking lots though students pay parking fees. Fran Gipson, political science junior, asked O’Keefe what the University’s priority was – the students or the Flagship Agenda.
“I feel like the school is sacrificing the students to save the Flagship Agenda,” she said. “They’re wanting to dress LSU up so it looks nice.”
O’Keefe told Gipson he was sorry she felt that way.
“That’s not what we’re about,” he said. “Students are our number-one priority.”
Gipson said she also felt some students were “second class” to student athletes. But O’Keefe disagreed, saying the NCAA watches athletes very closely.
“I wouldn’t want someone watching me like that,” he joked.
O’Keefe told The Daily Reveille the chats give students the chance to complain or bring issues to the table.
“But they need to remember there is not going to be an immediate resolution,” he said. “Things take time.”
Contact Marissa DeCuir at [email protected]
