Student Government presidential candidate Michelle Gieg and vice presidential candidate Patrick Downs announced their “Making It Happen” campaign yesterday at a press conference in the Journalism Building.
With the first full day of active campaigning underway, Gieg and Downs introduced the candidates on their ticket and discussed their platform with students, administrators and faculty.
This is the first press conference ever held by a Student Government ticket.
Gieg said her ticket is action plan “reaches far beyond what SG has done in the past.”
“A lot of students think SG doesn’t do anything,” Gieg said. She said her ticket had a press conference because its policy is to make SG more accessible to students.
Downs said students spend less than 10 percent of their time on campus, which is why the ticket is also targeting the many students who live off campus.
“Our obligation extends outside the gates of LSU,” Downs said.
Gieg said she and Downs plan to work with the Capital Area Transit System to put Global Positioning System tracking devices on city buses, enabling students to track the location of buses online.
Gieg said federal funding is available for the tracking plans.
Dwight Brashear, CEO of CATS, attended the conference and said the tracking system is highly accurate and will track the buses within a few feet.
“We have been interested to do this for a long time,” Brashear said. He said no one from the University showed interest in the tracking system until Gieg and Downs contacted him.
Gieg and Downs’ plans also include a 24-hour computer lab on campus and eliminating the use of Social Security numbers as the primary identifiers for students.
The use of Social Security numbers “puts students at constant risk,” Gieg said.
Gieg said she and Downs have begun discussing the elimination of Social Security numbers with the Registrar and the Office of Computing Services.
Implementing a point system for post-season sporting tickets is also a priority for Gieg and Downs. Gieg said students will get points for all sporting events they attend. When post season approaches, the points will be tallied, and the students with most points will get priority.
Better wireless Internet access and a directly beneficial student tech fee will also be implemented, Gieg said.
Gieg and Downs also want to extend the time Campus Transit runs to 3 a.m. — it currently runs until 2 a.m. — to make the time coincide with the 3 a.m. curfew for residential hall residents. She said the ticket also wants to make designated areas for pick up to avoid what she called current confusion.
Since the University regularly hires new faculty, Gieg said she and Downs want to implement instructional training to inform faculty members about the use of classroom technology and how to better engage students through cultural-competency training or teaching faculty about Baton Rouge and Louisiana.
Gieg said she and Downs also want to involve students in the Baton Rouge’s plans for development. She said the ticket wants student interaction with important student areas, such as the North Gates area on Highland and Nicholson.
“We are taking SG to the next level,” Gieg said.