Tentatively beginning in the 2018 spring semester, students will be able to receive free business cards from the Olinde Career Center as a result of SGFB No. 2 from the LSU Student Senate.
The bill was written by Manship School of Mass Communication senator Frederick Bell, and it passed the Student Senate on Oct. 25.
“I didn’t see a particular need, but I was in D.C. this past May with one of my fraternity brothers,” Bell said. “He attends school up [at Illinois State University] and … he had business cards in his padfolio.”
Bell said the business cards had the Illinois State logo on them, as well as his fraternity brother’s name and contact information.
After discovering Illinois State provided the cards at no charge for students, Bell inquired whether LSU had a similar program. He discovered the Career Center at the University did not offer this service, so he began a discussion with Olinde Career Center director Jesse Downs to create a similar program.
“[Downs] said that it was feasible,” Bell said. “I began talks with the Career Center at [Illinois State] because I knew that they had it there.”
Bell said the main questions he wanted answered by Illinois State were about how to create a program like this and how much the program itself cost.
The enrollment for Illinois State during fall 2017 is 20,784 students, according to Illinois Public Media. About 1,500–2,000 students use the service each year, and the program costs $1,100 per year to produce. This accounts for 20 business cards and the plastic card holders per semester for students who request them, Bell said.
For comparison, the University has an enrollment of 30,863 for the 2017 fall semester, according to the University’s 14th Day Enrollment Report. Taking into account the inflation of students, Bell wrote a finance bill to allocate $1,300 from the Student Senate budget toward the pilot program at the Career Center.
“If [the allocation] wasn’t enough, the Career Center said they would cover the rest,” Bell said. “If it was too much, the rest of that would come back to [the Student Senate].”
While the Career Center is aiming to begin the program at the beginning of next semester, Bell said he has faced an obstacle on what the design of the card will be.
Bell’s original intention for the design of the card was to bear the University logo, but he has since received word from the University’s Division of Strategic Communications that they did not approve of use of the logo on the card. Currently, Bell is still working on a design to be used, he said.
Once the program begins, students will be able to visit the Career Center website and fill out a form with pertinent information, which will then be sent away to be produced. Students should receive an email within the next week that their cards are ready to be picked up, Bell said.
Similar to the program at Illinois State, students will only be able to receive 20 cards per semester, which will come in a plastic card holder, Bell said.
“I always attend these networking events, meeting these people, and they have business cards,” Bell said. “I think it’s going to be really neat to see LSU students … seem more prepared.”
Editor’s Note: Frederick Bell is a former columnist for The Daily Reveille.
