An overwhelming majority of the Student Senate voted to request the LSU dean of students and the Office of the General Counsel repeal the overturned disqualification of the Foret-Tatman: Forward ticket at the Student Senate meeting Wednesday.
The resolution, brought by College of Business Sen. Corbitt Driskell and other senators, urges Dean of Students Fran’Cee Brown-McClure and Deputy General Counsel Trey Jones to repeal the reinstatement of the Foret-Tatman: Forward ticket and support the University Court’s actions, which Driskell said followed university and state judicial proceedings.
The dean of students reinstated the campaign Sunday after Student Government’s Judicial Branch disqualified them last month for alleged bribery. The resolution also highlighted the involvement of state senators Alan Seabaugh and Gregory Miller, who wrote in support of Foret-Tatman: Forward before Brown-McClure’s decision, saying there was insufficient evidence for the ticket’s disqualification.
The resolution also said State Rep. Dixon McMakin “threatened to bring the perceived issues of the Student Government Election to a meeting” with Student Advocacy and Accountability Advisor Johnathan Sanders, senators Seabaugh and Miller and LSU President William F. Tate IV.
“There was a ton of external pressure from the state legislature that really kind of was meant to intimidate not only our group but pretty clearly our Division of Student Affairs,” Driskell said.
Driskell noted University Court decisions have only been overruled twice, in the 1950s and again in the ‘70s, both for civil rights reasons. The campaign was reinstated only a half hour before active campaigning began, the resolution notes. Driskell, an economics senior, said passing the resolution would preserve the validity of the Judicial Branch.
Driskell also stated that with this being passed it will not affect the physical election, since elections are not able to be decided until all judicial cases are final. This could possibly affect the outcome but not the timeline of voting.
When moved into debate, many members were vocal about their support. Sen. Emma Long, a mass communication and political science senior, urged the rest of the senators to think into the logistics.
“My question for all of you regarding this: is Dr. B [Brown-McClure] the dean of students or is she the dean of state senators?” Long asked.
Sen. Camille Bower, a mass communication sophomore, also debated the cause, speaking to how “disheartened” she was by the actions taken to overturn the original ruling. She said this corrupts the Student Senate.
“When the decision was rightfully made, I was so excited,” Bower said. “You know because the political arena outside of Student Government is not perfect and there is a lot of corruption, so I was excited there wasn’t in our own body.”
The resolution was passed 56-1 with seven senators abstaining from the vote.
Senators passed multiple other resolutions at the meeting, including two by Long. One urged LSU to include language on civic engagement in course syllabi, and another to allocate a portion of the student tech fee to help fund TurboVote, a non-partisan nonprofit that encourages civic engagement by providing election information nationwide.
In addition, resolutions requesting the university install outlet towers outside the front of the Student Union and provide voluntary breathalyzers outside of Tiger Stadium on game days were passed. Both were presented by Sen. Paris Holman.
The next Student Senate meeting will take place March 26 at 6:30 p.m.
A previous version of this story erroneously misstated the number of senators who abstained. The mistake has been corrected, and an accurate voting record for SGR 12 can be viewed here.
