Student Government Senate unanimously approved $12,000 from the Senate Contingency Account to fund six new courses for the University Center for Community Engagement, Learning and Leadership at Wednesday night’s Senate meeting.
SG Vice President Dani Borel announced that she and President J Hudson will supplement the Senate funding so CCELL can have a total of eight courses.
“We’re trying to get full coverage, and we’ve had a mandate from y’all to make sure service-learning is covered in all majors,” said Marybeth Lima, CCELL director.
College of Sciences Sen. Brandon Jones, co-sponsor of the CCELL bill, resigned at the end of the meeting.
The Senate unanimously passed legislation from University Center for Advising and Counseling Sen. Cody Wells to allocate $1,800 from the Senate Contingency Account to the Going Global Program at the University. Global is an external company that assists in creating plans for students who wish to move abroad.
“Over the past four years, almost 35,000 students that we know of have utilized this,” Wells said.
The Senate also passed legislation to appropriate $2,500 from the Senate Contingency Account to help fund Up ‘Til Dawn, a St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital awareness program.
Speaker Pro Tempore Aaron Caffarel and University Center for Freshman Year Sen. Jackson Voss introduced a bill to pass a Senate Accountability Act at the beginning of each regular session that would “give Senators empowerment over their own requirements and have them set their own standards.” The Senate clashed during the debate, as multiple senators said they worried this legislation would promote laziness.
“I have great idealism when it comes to senators,” Caffarel said. “You may have really excited senators who want to push themselves.”
Despite Caffarel’s rebutting arguments, the Senate did not pass the bill.
SG’s executive staff is hoping to fashion a “baseball season kickoff” pep rally, and the staff discussed potential locations, who would be willing to speak to represent the team, possible performances and if the pep rally should be open to the public. SG considered using the Parade Ground, asking Tiger Band and cheerleaders to perform and requesting LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri speak along with former LSU baseball players.
The executive staff also discussed ideas for changing SG, which included adding more cohesion events among branches, changing office hour requirements, altering the meeting room setup, finding ways to promote SG visibility and asking students what they envision SG doing for them.
“I think Student Government is not as much one organization as it is three right now,” said Jeffrey Wale, Director of Academics. “Cohesion can really solve that issue.”
Borel also encouraged everyone to remain proactive during the spring semester.
“We have about 79 days left in office,” Borel said. “That’s not a lot of time, and we have a lot to accomplish.”
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]