The Student Senate called attention to the presidential search committee and their process this week, alongside other issues on campus.
Sens. Alicia Cerquone and Kelsey Womack presented SGR 9 to the Senate Wednesday, which was previously presented in last week’s meeting. The goal of this resolution is to call LSU to be more transparent during the search for the new president.
Since then, LSU has sent out an email to students allowing for public input. The university also announced the finalist schedules for each candidate, which includes forums with students and faculty.
Sen. James Williams III expressed concern for this process, especially the survey, saying it was not a direct way to communicate with the LSU Board of Supervisors, the group who will vote for the next president.
“One of my concerns is that they meet with these groups, but there’s nothing more than us getting public input and no way will we be able to give specific feedback. LSU is not known for their transparency,” Williams III said.
With this resolution, the Senate hopes for more transparency and student voices to be heard. It passed 44-2-5 amongst the Senate.
Earlier in the meeting both Cerquone and Womack presented another piece of legislation. SGR 11 urges LSU not to build any statue or memorial of any kind on LSU’s Baton Rouge campus.
“We think that the environment on campus is in many ways already discriminatory, and we do not want any more money spent on this rhetoric,” Cerquone said.
This comes after Gov. Jeff Landry urged LSU to be the first school in the country to make a statue in Charlie Kirk’s honor last week. If SGR 11 passes at its committee meeting Monday, it will be heard at the Senate’s next meeting.
Corbitt Driskell presented SGB 11 to amend this semester’s SG budget. This was successfully passed on last week, but due to a typo in the budget’s final number it was re-presented in front of the Senate and passed 49-0-2.
During the meeting Speaker Pro Tempore Tyhlar Holliway presented SGCR 108, which passed unanimously. This was to appoint Aditya Khutale to the position of assistant coordinator of philanthropy for the executive branch.
Sen. Feldt, presented SGB 6, referred to as a “procedural bill,” that would allow the judicial branch to increase the number of justices from 9 to 10. The reasoning for the additional judge is that this will allow for operations to continue at a quicker, more efficient pace.
This was passed 46-0-2. The vote needed to be passed by at least two-thirds of the senate, and going forward must be signed by Lavar Henderson, LSU’s student body president. If the bill is successful, the Senate will go through the process to appoint a new judge, which will include a Senate vote.
