Former Student Government President Colorado Robertson’s class gift tradition, which transformed the area behind Dodson Auditorium into a landscaped garden, is continuing in this year’s “Parade of Graduates,” which will beautify the sidewalks around the Parade Ground.The 2010 Class Gift Project will feature 20 years of bricks engraved for every graduating senior who decides to purchase one through the online fee bill.The beginning of the pathway will be marked with a time capsule commemorating the University’s sesquicentennial anniversary.The idea of a brick for each graduating senior started last year with the creation of Dodson West Garden. The optional senior bricks were $75, and about 600 students bought bricks.Tiffany Compagno, 2010 Class Gift committee chair, said she wants every graduating senior to participate in the graduate walk.The graduate walk, like the Dodson Garden project, is one of many campus beautification projects former S.G. administrations have created. Compagno said the other projects were not unified or consistent, and it would be hard to maintain past projects.”We’re trying to establish a tradition,” Compagno said. “Freshmen will come in at orientation and say, ‘I can’t wait until I get my name on a brick.'”The project will create a $30-$35 fee which will appear on each graduating senior’s fee-bill with the $25 diploma fee. Compagno is still working with the landscape architects to nail down an exact cost, and students will have the option to opt out of the program.”It’ll be hard to implement a fee, especially right now,” Compagno said. “I’d like to see it lowered as much as possible.”The fee will pay for having each brick engraved and set in the ground, as well as landscaping and site furniture around the Parade Ground.The referendum for students to vote on the fee was supposed to appear in Wednesday’s Senate meeting, but Compagno said the student vote might not happen.”I think we need to be conscious of all the different fees going on the fee bill,” Robertson said.Compagno said a new option is to bypass the student vote and bring the referendum to the Chancellor’s office instead.”We’re tabling this bill for another week and trying to determine which route to take,” Compagno said.She said students will be wary of any fee increase, and it will be difficult to pass a fee increase in March and implement it for May graduates.Even if the students do not vote on the fee increase, Compagno said she still wants to hear student input.”Whether or not it goes to student vote, we want students to be informed about the project and our goals for it,” Compagno said.Some senators were concerned about the sustainability of the project in the future because the fee will have an opt-out clause on the fee bill.”A lot of it has to do with the fact that we think [a fee vote is] going to fail,” Compagno said. “Students are scared of a fee right now.”SG President Stuart Watkins said he thinks the graduate walk will be an amazing improvement to the University.”I commend the committee for coming up with a plan of action,” Watkins said. “I’m anxious to see this project move along.”Drew Prestridge, College of Arts and Sciences senator, said he’s looking forward to seeing the graduate walk happen.”I think the graduate walk is going to be an icon on LSU’s campus,” Prestridge said. “It’s a really great tradition, and they can look at this brick and see their LSU college career tangibly expressed.”
——–Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]