Amid hundreds of students licking multi-colored popsicles and mumbling the lyrics to “Who Let the Dogs Out” at the Student Organization Fair, Chancellor Sean O’Keefe and LSU football coach Les Miles fielded questions from students.
O’Keefe and Miles addressed student concerns, which included distributing financial aid to Hurricane Katrina victims, finding football tickets and beating the University of Tennessee, at the semester’s first Chat with the Chancellor.
“It’s nice to get out of the administrator role every now and then,” O’Keefe said after speaking with dozens of students. “It’s always nice to hear what students are thinking about.”
Evan Bergeron, political science junior, said he was concerned about increasing the amount of money in the Hurricane Katrina Student Relief Fund.
“A lot of people I’ve talked to are concerned about how much the Student Relief Fund is going to help students,” Bergeron said after speaking to O’Keefe.
As of Tuesday the fund had $30,000 with more money being added by Student Government with each sale of the T-shirts, which went on sale Wednesday.
SG President Michelle Gieg gave T-shirts to O’Keefe and Miles to increase visibility of the fund campaign.
O’Keefe said he was pleased to be part of the T-shirt fundraising effort, and he assured students that the fund will be able to help students affected by Katrina.
“The proceeds from the Arizona State game are going into the fund, and some of the proceeds from Saturday’s game with Tennessee will go into the fund,” he said. “We’re going to reach our goal. Stand by, because we are going to get there.”
Miles followed by saying that he feels confident LSU will beat the Tennessee Volunteers this weekend.
“We’re absolutely going to win,” he said.
Paul Jack, psychology junior, said he believes the Student Relief Fund will be able to raise a substantial amount of money for displaced New Orleans students. But he fears it won’t help students who were already at LSU and were affected.
“Are they going to divide money between the students who came here and those who were already here?” he asked. “We weren’t displaced, but we need help too.”
O’Keefe assured him that the University’s Office of Student Aid and Scholarships was going to disperse money to both new and existing students.
“It was good to hear that,” Jack said. “It makes me feel like they are looking over us.”
Vanessa Guile, displaced communications and philosophy sophomore from Tulane University, thanked O’Keefe for helping her make a smooth transition from her former school to LSU. O’Keefe said he was overwhelmed by the feedback he received since the storm hit Southeastern Louisiana and much of the Gulf Coast.
“We couldn’t have done it without the students,” he told Guile. “The student leadership involvement since the storm hit has been amazing.”
Guile said she was grateful that LSU was so accommodating to students from other universities.
“When I talked to Columbia University, they asked me to send my SAT and ACT scores before they would enroll me,” Guile said. “I told them I didn’t even have a house.”
Miles addressed a concern on a lot of students’ minds – LSU football.
The coach spoke to students who asked him where they could get tickets to sold-out games and signed autographs for fans, but he said his thoughts kept returning to Saturday’s game.
“It has been a lot of fun out here,” Miles said of the response he received from students. “Everyone has been so nice, but I need to get back to practice.”
Contact Jeff Jeffrey at [email protected]