With Thursday’s dedication of the 2009 Class Gift, Dodson West Garden, one group is looking to the future — one marked by preserving the past.Landmark LSU is a historical preservation society aspiring to make vast improvements to the University — including renovations to Lockett Hall, the Huey P. Long Fieldhouse and the eventual rebuilding of the Forever LSU campaign. The student organization has a short-term goal of improving the Greek Amphitheater, which it will suggest to a subset committee of Student Government as the 2010 class gift.”It’s time for our class [of 2010] to really step up,” said Landmark LSU President Michael Finkelstein. “Our campus is completely fractured, and there’s not really any campus unity … We thought that it would be a great way to get all the different aspects on campus involved in coming together for a common goal.”The group aims to become a self-sustaining society able of operating year after year from donated funds. The society plans to start with a small project, like renovations to the amphitheater, and grow to larger projects as it becomes increasingly visible in the Baton Rouge community, Finkelstein said.”If we can show people what we can do with our budget, hopefully they’ll support us as we take on a bigger budget,” Finkelstein said.  Depending on available funding, Finkelstein said the project could aesthetically improve the amphitheater, provide electrical hookups to the stage and improve the lighting surrounding the seating area. The bricks on the columns leading into the amphitheater could be used for names, he said. Landmark considered pitching the idea of renovations to the amphitheater as the 2010 Class Gift, Finkelstein said. If the project was designated as the 2010 Class Gift, Finkelstein said it would free Landmark from working to gather funding.Dennis Mitchell, campus landscape architect, said three projects are typically selected as potential Class Gifts by a committee comprised of students not associated with Student Government. The projects then go through the approval process. The graduating class then votes on the approved projects. As the campus landscape architect, Mitchell works to give the committee “some direction” with regard to the feasibility of the three projects.While Mitchell called the prospect of renovating the amphitheater “a wonderful idea,” he said the budget of the project could hinder its possibilities of making it to the three selected projects. ——Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]