Student Government President Cassie Alsfeld dominated the Student Senate meeting Wednesday night with discussion of her capacity to grant LSU Board of Supervisor scholarships.
Alsfeld has awarded seven Board tuition waiver scholarships so far, including two to members of her Executive Staff: SG Vice President Josh King and SG Executive Advisor Micah Davies.
Alsfeld defended her selection before the Senate.
“We have a very hard working Executive Staff who works for you, who works for me, who works for every student in this institution daily, without pay,” Alsfeld said. “I did not use this for political gain to get on the Board of Supervisors.”
Members of the Board, which oversees all schools within the statewide LSU System, are each granted 20 tuition waiver scholarships. Before Board members can grant these scholarships, the applications must be approved by the particular school’s Office of Student Financial Aid and by the LSU System Office.
The scholarships include GPA requirements and are to be awarded based on academic excellence, special talent and financial need. Because the scholarship waives the same tuition exempted by TOPS, recipients of TOPS scholarships are ineligible for Board scholarships.
Davies, a fifth-year chemistry senior, is no longer eligible for TOPS after using all four allotted years. Josh King, electrical engineering senior, also had TOPS, but lost his eligibility.
Alsfeld said she fears undue attention to scholarship recipients will deter future applicants.
“I think it is very, very unfair to the other applicants that we’ve already exploited this,” she said.
Alsfeld just returned from a weekend of meetings with the Louisiana Council of Student Body Presidents, the group through which she was elected to serve on the Board.
Later in the meeting, a bill aiming to provide legislative oversight to an account under Alsfeld was delayed a second time. The contentious bill, which failed to pass in this past week’s session and was up for reconsideration yesterday, was tabled until next Wednesday.
“I don’t think it should be up for reconsideration,” said Alsfeld, whose access to a $41,500 Corporate Sponsorship Account would be limited by the bill. “But I do think that talk is good.”
David Iseral, Finance Committee chairman and author of the bill, said he will meet with Executive Staff members to see if a compromise can be reached.
—Contact Daniel McBride at [email protected]