SG president Zack Faircloth outlines plans for spring semester

By CJ Carver | @CW_Carver

January 19, 2017

Student Government Initiatives

Over the last semester, Student Government oversaw many changes on campus and plans to do the same for the current semester.
During the fall 2016 semester, SG launched new initiatives for students, including keeping the Student Union open 24 hours during finals week, releasing the “Tiger Tenets” in response to the tailgating safety policies proposed by the dean of students and passing a bill to open the possibility of declaring Election Day 2018 a school holiday.
“This semester the real hit-on point we want to make is: We’re not just going to be a Student Government who puts a water fountain,” SG president Zack Faircloth said. “We want to leave a really lasting impression, especially with this administration.”
SG plans to accomplish this by launching three major initiatives this semester, as well as completely revamping Groovin’.
The first of these initiatives is a brand new LSU app, which is slated for release this spring.
“The LSU app was something that was a no-brainer in our mind; it was outdated,” Faircloth said. “We actually have two great computer science majors at LSU working on it right now, and we should have it out in March.”
SG has also partnered with the Baton Rouge Area Chamber to bring students a project called LSU Local.
The focus of LSU Local is connecting freshmen, sophomores and juniors to the Baton Rouge community, both socially and in the market by assisting them with getting internships, Faircloth said.
The third of SG’s major initiatives this semester is Gold Standard Housing, which aims to tackle crime in off-campus student housing.
“This was something that was launched back in the fall, but a lot of the work is going to be in this semester,” Faircloth said. “Something like 25 percent of the crime in this police precinct comes from student housing. We’ve already partnered with the [District Attorney’s] office and LSUPD to try to make a higher standard for those.”
The program is opt-in for the various student housing complexes, and there are already a couple that have signed up, Faircloth said.
One event SG plans to completely change is Groovin’.
“While I can’t reveal any artist, [and] I can’t reveal much about location or what’s going to happen; that’ll all be released later in the semester Groovin’ is going to shock people, and they’re going to be ecstatic to see who the artist is,” Faircloth said.
The artist and location will be announced in February, and Groovin’ is set to take place on March 30.
Another evolving aspect of SG is the executive branch’s involvement in legislation.
“We work really closely with our legislative branch, which is sort of atypical from what [the University has] seen in the past,” Faircloth said. “Pretty much everything we’re working on, there will be a piece of legislation accompanying it, and every time they put a piece of legislation through, somebody on my executive branch will be working on it.”
SG will also be watching the state Legislature closely, as the University’s end of the year report card will be released, said Jayce Genco, the SG presidential press secretary and a former reporter for The Daily Reveille.
“There’s speculation that there is going to be a special session in the next few months, and we’re going to do what we have to do to make sure that LSU and higher education gets the funding and support that we need,” Genco said.