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 “LSU Open Source” ticket for Student Government president and vice president say they want to approach SG in a more analytical manner and minimize wasted time.
SG presidential candidate Garrett Dupre and vice presidential candidate Jarrett Richard said they have calculated the amount of work current SG President J Hudson’s administration has put in, and it amounts to 35,000 “man-hours” of work. After looking at the “raw magnitude” of such a number, Dupre and Richard said they think they could accomplish on average one initiative per week.
Dupre and Richard have few initiatives, but they said they plan to formulate more initiatives once they are elected into office and know who they will be working with. Dupre said they cannot begin to build an administration without knowing what “tools” they have to help.
While neither Dupre nor Richard is an SG member, they said they watched last year’s election and Hudson’s administration and found ways to “streamline” SG.
“I can’t see someone in Student Government really having that much of an edge over someone who isn’t,” Dupre said.
  Video: Interview with Dupre & Richard
 
Dupre and Richard said they want to approach their administration in the “smartest way” they can and they want to better represent student voices by being “more serious” about the approach to student outreach.
Dupre said they had to attend one of SG’s current executive branch meetings, and there was no discussion as to how student outreach could be improved. He used last year’s Groovin’ on the Grounds “Shinedown fiasco” as an example as to how SG needs to listen to students. He said he did not recall meeting one person who was happy with the decision for Shinedown to perform.
Dupre and Richard said they would especially like to increase SG’s financial transparency. They said they want to post a detailed list of how much money SG spends and where it is being spent on SG’s website, and they want students and organizations to hold them accountable.
“If I’m going to pay my student fees, I deserve to know where it’s being spent,” Dupre said.
Dupre said he thinks SG’s Senate “wasted valuable time” debating about the resolution to create a black caucus. He said the resolution should have been presented as “something to better the students,” and race should not have been an issue in the debate. Dupre said the senators were not necessarily representing what was in the best interest of the student body during the debate.
Using the black caucus debate as an example, Dupre said if elected, he would like to address the senators about how much time they monopolize debating.
Both Dupre and Richard said they would have voted in favor of the resolution to add “gender identity and expression” to the nondiscrimination clause of the equal opportunity policy.
Dupre, the treasurer of Women Organizing Women, said he has been approached about “women’s issues,” and in light of the attacks near Middleton Library and on the Parade Ground, he’d like to see SG partner with more organizations that advocate awareness about such issues.
Dupre and Richard said decisions made about budget cuts will be value-driven.
He and Richard said the question comes down to the decision between raising tuition or cutting programs. If the University values having students with low incomes or making the University attainable for all in-state students, then it will cut programs. However, if the University values increasing its U.S. News and World Report ranking, then it will need to increase tuition.
“We like to look at things analytically, but with things like this, values have to come into play,” Dupre said.
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]