The Student Senate held their final session of the semester Wednesday, hearing lively debate and passing 12 pieces of legislation.
Students for a Democratic Society member Gabriela Juárez opened the Senate’s meeting with public input alongside multiple other SDS members.
Juárez, a junior, gave a statement praising the Senate for previous resolutions condemning the proposed Charlie Kirk campus statue and advocating for Juárez’s release from jail. Juárez was arrested and charged with resisting an officer and interfering with an educational practice after speaking over her allotted time at a presidential search committee meeting earlier this semester.
With her public comment she also urged the Senate to be more active next semester.
“We believe the current political climate requires extreme and immediate actions in order to prevent it from destroying this country,” Juárez said.
Juárez voiced her concerns to the Senate body and condemned the LSU administration. She also said that SDS feels Student Government’s responses to issues on campus this year have been insufficient. Juárez asked the Senate to kickstart a change within SG.
“The student movement is here on this campus. We’re going to continue to fight, we’re going to continue to win and we’re going to continue to struggle because when we dare to struggle, we dare to win,” Juárez said.
Following this, Juárez stood by Sen. Carly Minor while she presented a resolution urging LSU’s new President Wade Rousse and Executive Vice President and Chancellor Jim Dalton to protect student organizations on campus despite differences in opinion, goals and views.
Temi Oduola-Owoo, Feminists in Action’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion and advocacy, joined them as well. Both spoke in favor of the bill and encouraged the Senate to pass it.
In a call for debate, Sen. Jack Appleton also spoke in favor of the resolution. Appleton stressed that it is the LSU administration’s duty to protect these organizations and students’ constitutional rights, alluding to an agreement the Trump administration offered universities last month that placed guidelines on institutions’ admissions, tuition and more in exchange for funding.
“It is imperative that the president, the executive vice president reject any compact with any level of government, local, state, federal or otherwise that seeks to silence student voices, otherwise counteract student interest here on campus, the right to students as individuals, as constituents, as members of the LSU at least,” Appleton said.
Following Appleton’s remarks, Sen. Joshua Jones motioned to pass the resolution by unanimous consent. Two senators objected to the motion.
Sen. Alicia Cerquone encouraged the senators who objected to explain why they decided against this, but no comment was made. There was then another motion to pass by unanimous consent, this one successfully passing.
Sen. Corbitt Driskell passed a bill to change SG code to give clarification about filling temporary roles in the vacancy of the speaker or speaker pro tempore.
Sen. Paris Holman spoke about SGR 18, her resolution that would urge LSU to evaluate and reform policies on ownership and intellectual property in research partnerships. If passed it would advocate for “fair recognition” on behalf of the researcher and undergraduate student workers and others involved, according to the resolution.
There was a motion to pass the legislation by unanimous consent. Sen. Calvin Feldt objected to this, saying there was no precedent for this request.
“I think that this is unreasonable to ask of LSU and any college in the country, so I do not urge favorable passage,” Feldt said.
Following this there was discussion among senators and back and fourth between those agreeing with the text and those who disagreed. Ultimately, with a vote of 22-7 with 11 abstentions, it passed.
Sen. Benjamin Goldstein and Sen. Aaron Lomastro passed a resolution requesting the Faculty Senate’s Integrative Learning Core Committee and its AI committee among other groups to educate students on AI and cybersecurity. The resolution would also allow for the use of MikeGPT, LSU’s own AI service, for tutoring purposes.
SGB 15, which will appropriate a maximum of $3,096 to supply Aunt Flow machines with period products around campus, was presented and passed 42-0-1. SGR 14, a resolution requesting LSU rename Acadian Field to Unity Field was passed by unanimous consent.
Another resolution, SGR 16, requested that LSU Greek Life and Facility Services allow the nine National Pan-Hellenic Council fraternities and sororities to decorate their dedicated tables at the field with their organizations’ respective colors and paraphernalia on game days. This passed by unanimous consent as well.
SGB 18 advocated for the removal of any references to voting by silent ballot, an unrecorded vote which would not show which senators were present and is currently not allowed, from the SG code was passed 37-1-2. SGB 16, another code change that would allow for the Civics Commission to operate year round, was presented and passed 42-0-1.
Other resolutions presented included requests for LSU to provide Canva Pro to students and LSU Facility Services to install QR codes around campus leading to an online campus map. Both resolutions were passed by unanimous consent.
The only new piece of legislation discussed at the meeting was appointed Julia Spiess and Valerio R. Luftig to the Student Sustainability Fund Committee. This passed unanimously.
The final meeting closed with Speaker Ethan Elmer and Speaker Pro Tempore Tyhlar Holliway thanking the Senate for their hard work this semester and encouraging the body to “pat themselves on the back.”
The Student Senate will continue meeting again at the beginning of next semester.
