While the smells, sounds and cramped space of Middleton only add to the stress of finals week, the extra space of the Student Union may provide students relief along with a refreshing change of scenery.
The LSU Student Union will be open 24 hours during finals week, from Dec. 4 to Dec. 9.
The entire Union will be open for students to study during regular hours, but after 11 p.m., concentrated study will move to the first floor in the Live Oak Lounge only. Students will check-in using their Tiger Card.
LSU Dining will provide coffee, water, pastries and fruit. Coca-Cola will provide Monster Energy samples. McDonald’s also agreed to remain open until 2 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 4 and Monday, Dec. 5.
Clarissa Burns, Student Government director of Student Auxiliary Services, said this initiative had been discussed by SG for years. During the summer, she said SG president Zack Faircloth started meeting with Assistant Vice President of Auxiliary Services Margot Carroll, to discuss the idea of a 24-hour Union during finals week. Once Burns was appointed to her position in August, she assumed the responsibility of making it happen.
Burns said SG worked with Auxiliary Services, the Center for Academic Success, LSU Catering and the Staff Senate. She said all of the departments were excited to help put the initiative together, and SG did not run into any “road blocks” with anyone.
“We had big support from Middleton also because it’s just another way to help divert some of that student flow during finals week,” Burns said. “The original idea was to emulate kind of the first floor of Middleton, kind of like a coffee shop space, but where people would be comfortable working in groups and feeling like they could just spread out and really get some good studying done during finals week.”
Both Kendra Davis and Louis Gremillion, who ran for president and vice president, respectively, under the Restart Campaign last year, said they were happy SG was able to make the 24-hour Union idea a reality, regardless of the fact it was originally a part of Restart’s platform.
“The point of the campaign was never really about me and Kendra,” Gremillion said. “We wanted to make history as a ticket and that was something that really drove us as two individual leaders. But the purpose of the campaign was always focused on improving the student experience, so to see that Student Government pursued our initiative without being under our leadership, that doesn’t offend us at all. We were actually really excited they took a look at our platform and saw that they could accomplish this initiative.”
The idea came directly from students, Davis said. She said everything listed on their platform had been discussed with administrators prior to putting it on their ticket.
“We didn’t want to build our campaign on empty promises, so we knew that this was probably going to happen, if not this initiative, then it was going to be another one, because everything on our platform was feasible,” Davis said.
Gremillion said he encourages SG to look at the other initiatives that were part of the Restart campaign’s platform and work to pursue those, as well, because they will be able to help the students of the University.
Burns said the funding came from both the executive branch of SG and the Staff Senate.
Burns also said this was a pilot program, so reserving only the Live Oak Lounge as an extra study space will help SG to judge its success in hopes of making it a new tradition and spreading it out to the entire Union.
“Of course we would love for it to be a success and I think we’re pretty set-up now for the whole thing to go very well,” Burns said.