It has been nearly eight months since Brad Golson and Jenny Byrd became LSU Student Government president and vice-president. As two of the most prominent student leaders on campus, both have significant input on several campus activites and oversee a staff of more than one hundred student workers and volunteers.
But many students still remain unclear about exactly what role SG plays on campus. The Reveille sat down with Golson and Byrd to discuss the issues they campaigned on last spring and what they have accomplished so far.
 
Improving Academics
On Golson and Byrd’s pushcard, they highlighted seven areas of concern they vowed to address — one of the first was labeled “Academics.”
Golson and Byrd said they wanted to “create more convenient tutoring for students by shifting available services to extend beyond normal business hours.”
As of now, the Center for Academic Success offers free tutoring services to students in several subjects, but only until 5:30 p.m. The only after-hours tutoring is offered through the Genesis program with the Office of Multicultural Affairs — a program tailored for minority students.
A representative for the Center for Academic Success said limited funding makes it difficult to offer tutoring after hours.
But Byrd said although she is aware of the limited funding, she and the executive staff have initiated a new program for finals week.
Byrd said the Union will stay open until 2 a.m. during the week of final exams, and offer free tutoring from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. She also said they will section off areas in the Union for quiet and group study, and also will continue to give away free testing supplies, such as scantrons and Blue Books.
Regarding the limited funding available, Golson said SG allocated $10,000 of a Coca-Cola grant to help improve tutoring in the Center for Academic Success.
Byrd also said they are in the early stages of exploring more effective ways to spend the money than the 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. one-on-one tutoring.
Byrd said SG is looking at more technologically-advanced systems that allow students to e-mail questions to tutors through a Web-based system. The tutor can respond and write the answer with an electronic pen through a tablet PC. And if computers have microphones, she said the student and tutor may be able to communicate through the computer itself.
Golson and Byrd also said they wanted to encourage faculty and staff to use online tools such as Blackboard and Semester Book.
So far nothing has been done, but Byrd said next semester the Faculty Senate and the Student Senate intend on sending a joint resolution to all instructors to use the grading systems.
 
Athletics
Under the pushcard headline, Athletics, Golson and Byrd vowed to work with the Chancellor’s Office to increase ticket allocation for students for post-season games.
Golson said he would like to see more tickets offered to students for all games, especially football, which typically draws the most demand.
Golson said he and Robert Lay have been working with the Athletics Department to establish a clear ticketing policy outlining student tickets for post-season play. Golson said the ticketing department makes decisions based upon precedent set in years past. He also said until this year students have not had a say in any of the meetings that determine ticket allocation.
But in an interview Friday, Ticket Manager Brian Broussard said it is difficult to gauge how many tickets to allocate to students because they cannot fully predict how many students will want to travel to away bowl games from year to year.
Broussard said the number of tickets allocated to students also depends on how many tickets the University gets from the bowl.
For example, in the Cotton Bowl two years ago, Broussard said they made 2,000 tickets available for students, but many went unused.
“It’s a guessing game for these away games,” Broussard said. “We can’t just hold 2,000 tickets for students and then have them go unused.”
Last spring, Golson and Byrd’s pushcard said they were in favor of maintaining student organizational seating — a privilege in which organizations have the opportunity to purchase twice as many sets of tickets as the group has members.
Student organizational seating came under fire in September when increased demand for football tickets left very few freshmen able to get tickets. Through the student organizational seating privilege, 1,454 extra sets of tickets went to students that already had season tickets.
Byrd said she does not agree with this policy and thinks it needs to be re-evaluated.
Golson said he realizes it presents a problem and most likely will have to change.
But he said he does not want to just cut the program and leave the organizations uninformed and upset. So, Golson said he and Lay are trying to contact as many organizations as possible and brace them for the inevitable change.
Golson said if they do decide to remove the extra ticket privilege, he “does not want this to be a shock.”
Golson also said the Athletics Department has canceled student-ticket upgrading, with the exception of married students. Next year, students no longer will be able to upgrade a student ticket so a non-student can sit in the student section.
 
Student Opinion Roundtable
Designed as a mechanism to gather student thoughts and ideas, Golson and Byrd initiated a monthly program called Student Opinion Roundtable.
Jimmy Vermaelen, a biological sciences senior and SG executive staff member, said SG has held roundtable events in East Campus Apartments, Miller Hall and Herget Hall.
Vermaelen said although the attendance has “not been incredibly high,” he thinks the discussions have been effective.
Vermaelen said students have offered suggestions about recycling, parking and safety issues.
During one roundtable, Vermaelen said some students expressed they would like to see USA Today offered through SG’s newspaper initiative — a continued program started by past SG administrations that brings The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to campus each day.
Vermaelen said the sole purpose of the roundtable discussion is to understand what students want.
“Our power is from the students,” Vermaelen said. “We have a lot of power within the administration, but we can’t really do anything without them saying what they want or don’t want.”
 
Communiversity
Using the University of Georgia as a model, Golson and Byrd wanted to develop a program that would increase volunteerism on campus. UGA Communiversity is an organization that directs students to service projects.
In a summer Reveille article, co-director of community affairs Emily Burris said SG hoped to develop a Web site that would provide students with information about service projects going on throughout the Baton Rouge area.
And after a summer and fall semester of researching the program, Byrd said they will have a Web site up and running in the spring where student organizations can list community service projects in which students can participate.
Byrd said they will kick off the program in the spring with a Graffiti Bust, where students will clean up graffiti throughout the city.
 
Residential Life
Golson and Byrd’s pushcard said they wanted to simplify the re-application process for students living on campus.
Byrd said they have heard many complaints from students about difficulties when trying to re-apply for on-campus housing online. She said the computer program, which runs similar to online class schedule requests, does not allow students to request a roommate the way paper applications do.
Byrd said she and executive staff member Rebecca Florek have been attending the weekly re-application meetings with Residential Life, and making suggestions about improving the system, but have yet to solve the problem.
“It is kind of aggravating, on our platform we said this is what we’re going to have, but now, it’s a much bigger problem than we had imagined,” Florek said.
But Florek said she will keep attending the meetings and hopes they will be able to come up with a solution by next fall.
 
Programming
Byrd said a major part of SG’s presence on campus is providing event programming for students.
This year, Byrd said they started an International Film Festival and have expanded Teacher Appreciation Week to include a celebratory luncheon.
Byrd also said they have continued programs of prior administrations such as Chats with the Chancellor, International Week, Diversity Week, Disability Awareness Week and daily newspaper distribution.
SG also co-sponsored Project Geaux, an effort to increase voter participation.