Editor’s note: Ticket series will be printed in alphabetical order based on the presidential candidates’ last names.
Check out lsureveille’s SG presidentail election page for more coverage
Candidates of the “Together LSU” ticket for Student Government president and vice president say they want to make SG an outlet for communication among University organizations and administrators.
Presidential candidate Cody Wells, an SG senator, and vice presidential candidate Kathleen Bordelon, former senator and current director of Student Outreach, said the SG president will be eligible for a seat on the Board of Supervisors in the upcoming year, and Wells said he will “go after the seat with all his might.”
Currently, Ali Lieberman, LSU-Shreveport’s SG president, is the student member on the Board.
Bordelon said she is prepared to step into Wells’ role if he is busy at the Board of Supervisors. She said with a strong executive branch behind them, Wells’ absence from the SG office will not affect goals that need to be accomplished.
  Video: Interview with Wells & Bordelon
 
The duo, both of whom have worked in the Legislature as aides, said the process for budget cuts is largely political because Gov. Bobby Jindal is up for re-election. Wells said he supports mergers of universities, but legislators are going to cling to whatever University is in their area.
Wells said while Jindal’s current proposed budget says there will be no cuts to higher education, the politicized process will change that.
“Just because his initial budget is pretty for higher education, it won’t be at the end,” Wells said.
Though Wells and Bordelon say they will “protect student interest” as far as budget cuts, they will not dedicate their entire administration to them.
“We’re not going to let the focus of our administration be combating budget cuts,” Wells said.
Wells voted for both the resolution to add “gender identity and expression” to the nondiscrimination clause of the equal opportunity policy, along with the resolution to form a black caucus, and Bordelon said she supports both resolutions.
Wells said he voted for the gender identity resolution because he never wants to be discriminated against based on how he expresses himself, and he voted for the black caucus because of its goals to decrease the dropout rate and increase the acceptance rate of minority students at the University.
“We owe it to our community to keep minority students,” Wells said.
Wells said while he believes in increasing the acceptance rate of minority students, he feels the best way to do so is by utilizing junior colleges and community colleges so students will have the necessary criteria for admittance to the University.
Wells and Bordelon said after East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden “revived” the downtown area, many upperclassmen refer to go to downtown bars. So Wells and Bordelon spoke to Gary Graham, the director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, and hope to extend the bus system to downtown to “make our students safer and our community safer.” They said switching the bus routes will not be an expense to the University.
Wells and Bordelon said they have seen many administrations with initiatives to bring a farmers market to campus, which cannot happen because there is a farmers market three miles away. Thus, Wells and Bordelon have proposed a shuttle system to bring students to the farmers market.
The pair said the inspiration for its campaign has come from fellow students, who made them decide to list the “Four Quarters for Charity” football game and offering part-time veteran students football tickets as initiatives.
The “Four Quarters for Charity” football game would have students collect change to donate to a charity at a football game as an example of “how students can work together for one common purpose,” Bordelon said.
Wells and Bordelon said they have discussed the possibility of free football tickets for part-time veteran students with Joe Alleva, vice chancellor and director of athletics, who said it is feasible.
 
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]