S.G.A. SENATE MEETING
February 2, 2015
The meeting was called to order in the Leaders Suite of the Donald G.
Bollinger Student Union at 4:00 p.m.
Presiding officer was Vice President
Mary Sauce. The Recording Secretary was Dolly McGeever.
The pledge was led by Senator Tommy Thibodeaux and the prayer was given by
Senator Emily Sauce.
The Nicholls Student Government Association Mission Statement was read by
Senator Trey Clark and Senator Markos Picou read the first value of the
Nicholls Creed.
The following Executive Board members were present:
President Adam Lefort,
Vice President Mary Sauce, Treasurer Bobby Dufrene, Director of Student
Rights and Grievances Carolanne Moore, Director of Public Relations Lillie
Bourgeois and Secretary Dolly McGeever.
The following Senators were present: Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Yaye Ba, Meah
Johnson, Grant Ordoyne, Markos Picou, Trey Clark, Emily Sauce, Austin Wendt,
Tommy Thibodeaux, Jessica Fradella and Tiffany Durocher.
The following Senators
Peyton Chiasson.
were
absent:
Les
Theriot,
Chante’
Singleton
and
Web Tech was not represented.
Student Supreme Court was not represented.
Election Commission was not represented.
The following guests were present:
Dr. Eugene A. Dial, Jr., Vice President
of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services and SGA Advisor, Dr. Todd Keller,
Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs, Christian Lovell and Vincent
Sbisa, The Nicholls Worth Sports Reporter.
No Minutes were presented.
GUEST SPEAKER:
Dr. Todd Keller, Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs
I’m here to address a possible change in the class schedule that the
administration is looking into. Most of you who have only been here a short
period of time have probably become accustomed to a four and a half class day
schedule where you have Mondays-Wednesdays-Fridays courses early in the
morning.
Then it puts you on Mondays-Wednesdays, Tuesdays-Thursdays.
The
initial reason for going to that type of schedule was to see if there was a
cost savings to be realized.
It started when the budget issues arose.
We
know that budget issues have remained. What we found out is that there is no
cost savings to be realized.
Buildings still have to have lights on for
safety reasons.
Labs still have to have electricity to keep dish, rabbits
and mice and other critters alive, as well as fungi and other things. So
there really is no cost savings to be realized with a four and a half day
class schedule.
What we have come to realize is that there is a scheduling issue that has
evolved. With the number of first time Freshmen we’re getting and the need
for General Education courses, your English 101 and 102, your Math 112, 116,
117, etc. History courses, Geography and those, we’re having issues getting
an adequate number of those sections available with this four and a half day
schedule. So that’s one of the reasons we’re entertaining a five day class
schedule, Monday-Wednesday-Friday and Tuesday-Thursday schedule.
The main
reason for looking into going back to that is for the students’ sake so that
students will have an appreciable amount of sections available at good
timing.
One of the things we’re seeing right now is a little disagreement between the
Physical Sciences and the Natural Sciences.
Chemistry 109, 208 and 435,
these courses are offered at very specific times and there is usually only
one section because of the way the scheduling is set now. At the same time,
some of these mid-level Biologies, the 200 levels, are being scheduled at the
exact same time so students who need both of these courses are having trouble
scheduling them. Juniors and Seniors are looking at 300 or 400 courses.
GUEST SPEAKER CONTINUED:
Some of those students have probably come accustomed to not coming to class
on Fridays because those courses are being offered later in the afternoon.
The thing here is your 300 and 400 courses is a small group of people who
need those courses, who have advanced to that level, getting closer to
graduation. The instructors still have the latitude of making those courses
like an XM or XT where they set the specific time.
We’re talking about
affecting 100 or 130 students versus 700 to 900 incoming Freshmen.
The reason I am here today is because I want to get some feedback from SGA
about whether or not you think the student body would be grossly negatively
affected by a five day schedule versus what we now have.
(Dr. Keller
requested from Vice President Mary S. that the floor be open to discussion.)
COMMENT:
Senator Lawrence A. said he has no problem with it but
there could be a minority group of students who might
because they like having that extra day off perhaps for
work purposes or whatever.
Dr. Keller said that is going
to occur but for those in the upper level courses, the
instructors still have that latitude.
COMMENT:
Senator Austin W. said some professors use that afternoon
for office hours to meet with students. In reality, what
makes up the work week? 40 hours a week makes up the work
week so the office hours will still be there. Dr. Keller
said the Faculty Senate supports it 100% for the student.
This is the way it was done for a very long time. The faculty have been the
ones crying out for this for the simple reason that they’re having a lot of
difficulty scheduling the Biology and History classes.
Whatever is decided
is going to be in the best interest of the student.
COMMENT:
Senator Austin W. asked if Sodexho
hours of operation.
Dr. Keller
savings but revenue-wise it’s
Services has noticed a decline
campus becomes empty at a certain
no reason to keep services open.
would have to change the
said there is no cost
a deficit.
Auxiliary
of revenue because the
point in time so there’s
COMMENT:
Senator Lawrence A. asked when it would take place if it
does take place, who decides. Dr. Keller said in the Fall
of 2015 and will likely be an Administrative decision.
COMMENT:
Director Lillie B. said there was talk about the online
classes and for Freshmen that you’d want them to be in the
classroom.
Can you elaborate on that? Dr. Keller said
we’re seeing an evolution of more and more classes being
offered online and one of the reasons for that is to make
it certain that there is a space.
When a person chooses to come to a four-year university, the reason they
should be here is to get that socialization, to have that college experience.
What we’d really like to see is students come to classrooms and this is one
way of doing this. You build your network that’s going to help you later in
your career.
People you meet here are the ones that you can call on for
things we need later, not necessarily to climb the career ladder.
Dr. Keller said this is one of those things that when it speaks to issues of
student access and student success, it would probably be decided by
administration. When the decision does come forth, it will be found in the
schedule of classes. It won’t be something they’ll ease back on.
COMMENT:
Director Carolanne M. said she supports the decision.
If
the first Orientation is April, do you think the decision
will be made by then?
Dr. Keller said it will come up
again in the President’s Cabinet tomorrow morning. It has
gone through the University Council and has been supported.
It has gone through Faculty Senate and has been supported.
It’s coming to you now to get your feedback.
Up to this
point, there’s been overall support for it because it
centers around the students.
I don’t want you in the upper level classes to start thinking the sky is
falling by going back to Mondays-Wednesdays-Fridays, “I want my Fridays off”.
For those 300 level courses, those instructors do have latitude to schedule
them differently if it fits the mold better.
GUEST SPEAKER CONTINUED:
COMMENT:
Senator Austin W. asked if there are other issues or
concerns that have been decided by the Faculty Senate or
the University Council concerning this new schedule.
Dr.
Keller said somebody mentioned the fact that the faculty
might be upset because they won’t have that Friday
afternoon available but they will have time on Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and/or Friday to spread out
their requirements. The ones that have been doing the labs
from 1 to 4 on Friday afternoon, they’re ecstatic that
they’ll now be able to have those labs during the week.
Dr. Keller said the major issue that has raised eyebrows is the loss of
revenue but you have to realize that the majority of faculty that this
involves has been here for a while. They were here under that five day class
schedule. We’re not talking about a four and a half day work week or a five
day work week, we’re talking about class schedules.
At Nicholls, we’ve
always had the five day work week, this is just going back to scheduling
classes. The only reason we gave up the one half was to see if there could
be a cost savings.
Dr. Keller provided his email address of todd.keller@nicholls.edu and his
phone number of 448-4148 to contact him with any questions.
OFFICER REPORTS
PRESIDENT’S REPORT – ADAM LEFORT





I have a COSBP meeting this weekend in Baton Rouge so we’ll probably be
discussing any type of monetary budget cuts across to State to see what
we can do.
Last week I had a Swamp Stomp Committee Meeting. It was announced that
this will probably be one of the last years Nicholls we’ll have Swamp
Stomp on campus. Nicholls uses our resources to have it here so unless
someone comes in to do this, this will be our last year.
Last week I also attended a Food Advisory Committee meeting with
Senator Markos P.
We’ll give you a calendar of events happening with
Food Advisory.
Recruitment – thank you. Several students picked up applications last
week so good job.
The school calendar for this year – I know in the Fall we had a Dead
Day but in the Spring we don’t have a Dead Day because of the way the
classes fall. Would you like a Dead Day in Spring? I think the only
reason was because we started school early.
DIRECTOR OF STUDENT RIGHTS & GRIEVANCES’ REPORT – CAROLANNE MOORE
Thanks for turning in your WID/WIH this past Friday.
their emails.
Remember to include
TREASURER’S REPORT – BOBBY DUFRENE
We have the budget in a motion. We’ll be tabling it.
let me know if you have any questions.
Please look at it and
If you need any ideas for motions involving money, let me know.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS’ REPORT – LILLIE BOURGEOIS

Today is “Stuff Stopher” for the men’s basketball game at 6:30. This
game will be a “Red Out” game. We are no longer handing out the spirit
shirts, the cheerleaders will be throwing them. We may still hand out
pompoms so please be there. If you signed up, please try to go.
OFFICER REPORTS CONTINUED:
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS’ REPORT CONTINUED:
 Next Tuesday and Wednesday, February 10th and 11th, will be our first
Scantron Giveaway from 9:00-1:00 in the Union. We will serve king cake
since Mardi Gras is the next week, as well as lemonade. I have a flyer
already made and I’ll post it so please share it. I will pass around a
sign-up sheet in the general meeting. This is a mandatory event so
please sign up when you are available, and if you can’t make either of
the two days, please send in an excuse.
 Next Wednesday, February 11th will be the softball home opener as well
as student appreciation night. Starting at 6:00 p.m., we will hand out
vouchers for free hot dogs and free nachos to students. I’ll need
volunteers to hand them out at the game, so I’ll pass around a sign-up
sheet. Please sign up if you are available and promote this to all
students.
 Again, new student orientations will be coming up this semester, so if
you have any ideas for new items that we could give out with SGA’s logo
on it, please let me know so we can get that ordered as soon as
possible.
VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT – MARY SAUCE






Everyone has been doing a great job with recruiting.
I’ve been
emailing to have a specific department or college I’d like you to
contact.
I’ve received some emails that say they haven’t heard back
and are still waiting.
Senator Meah J. said she’s making a flyer so
I’ll get that from Meet the SGA so you can start putting them up on the
bulletin boards. We can make pocket size ones.
Thanks to everyone who attended the workshop. I think it went really
well and productive. We went over things that should have been routine
but needed to brush up on. We talked about putting a prayer into our
agenda for our meetings. It’s just a prayer that the University had on
the website. That way if you’re called on for prayer, you’ll have the
option to say your own prayer or to read the one on the agenda.
We
also talked about the order of appointments for swearing in. From now
on, new appointments will have the right to discuss a motion but not
vote on it. This is fair because they haven’t reviewed the motion or
been to the committee meetings. They don’t know everything the motion
is about.
The E-Board will meet about the Homecoming Display Contest so we’re
trying to get that under way.
At the end of the week, I’m attending a budget meeting with Treasurer
Bobby D. because President Adam L. will be at COSBP. If you have any
questions, let me know.
For WID/WIH, some of you said you had problems accessing it on Moodle.
If you have anything like that, let me know. We can look at why it’s
happening at the Moodle site but try to use Moodle because that way
it’s accessible directly to Director Carolanne M. I still have some
that WID/WIH that are in written form to submit to her so try to use
the Moodle site.
If you need motion ideas, come to me because I have five of them.
ACTIONS TAKEN ON OLD BILLS
S1415-039
I move that the Senate remove Markos Picou from the Senate for failing to
fulfill his duty in accordance with Article Six, Section 3 of “The Lefort
Corollary”. The section reads that “All SGA senators are required to write a
minimum of one (1) motion per semester. Failed.
S1415-040
I move that the Senate remove Meah Johnson from the Senate for failing to
fulfill his duty in accordance with Article Six, Section 3 of “The Lefort
Corollary”. The section reads that “All SGA senators are required to write a
minimum of one (1) motion per semester. Failed.
STUDENT SUPREME COURT REPORT
No report.
ELECTION COMMISSION REPORT
No report.
WEB TECH REPORT
President Adam L. said he’s interviewing applicants.
SGA SENATE COMMITTEE REPORTS
Finance Committee – Tiffany Durocher, Chair
Present:
Senators Tiffany Durocher, Yaye Ba, Trey Clark, Meah Johnson,
Markos Picou, Emily Sauce, Tommy Thibodaux and Jessica Fradella.
Absent:
Senators
Theriot.
Guest:
Treasurer Bobby Dufrene.
Lawrence
Arceneaux,
III,
Peyton
Chiasson
and
Les
Today we discussed the following:
The Spring 2015 budget.
highly favorable.
The motion to approve the budget was found to be
Three motions:
 A motion to purchase a security camera for the Library.
 A motion to purchase Mardi Gras beads for a Nicholls float riding in
the Ambrosia Parade.
 A motion to co-sponsor the LAS Conference to fund registrations fees.
All three were found to be highly favorable by the committee.
Judiciary Committee – Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Chair; Austin Wendt, Co-Chair
Present:
Senators Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Austin Wendt, Yaye Ba, Trey
Clark, Jessica Fradella, Meah Johnson, Markos Picou, Tommy
Thibodeaux and Emily Sauce.
Absent:
Senators Peyton Chiasson and Chante’ Singleton.
We discussed the following:
 The motion to renew the “Lefort Corollary”.
While discussing the
motion, the committee felt that the Corollary should be amended so that
it would allow students to have drinks such as water, tea and coffee at
the meetings.
The committee agreed to the amendment as well as the
rest of the Corollary.
 Senate recruitment was discussed such as methods of recruiting and
whether or not Senators spread the word about open positions.
Six
applications have been picked up from the SGA office.
Meet the SGA/Social Events: Mr/Ms Nicholls/Banquet - Homecoming/Christmas) –
Grant Ordoyne, Chair
Present:
Senators Grant Ordoyne, Tommy Thibodeaux and Austin Wendt.
Absent:
Senators Peyton Chiasson, Emily Sauce, Chante’ Singleton and Les
Theriot.
Guest:
Director of Public Relations Lillie Bourgeois
We discussed the following:
 The “Stuff Stopher” game and plan to meet at Stopher Gym following the
meeting.
 Scantron Giveaways taking place next week.
Since this event is
mandatory, we encourage the members to make it a priority to attend.
 Minutes were distributed to committee members to post on bulletin
boards of their respective colleges.
SGA SENATE COMMITTEE REPORTS CONTINUED:
Campus Improvements Committee – Peyton Chiasson, Chair; Tommy Thibodeaux, CoChair;
Present:
Senators Peyton Chiasson, Tommy Thibodeaux,
Jessica Fradella and Austin Wendt.
Absent:
Senator Grant Ordoyne.
Guest:
Senator Les Theriot.
Tiffany
Durocher,
We discussed the following:
 Revisited items that need to be completed.
 The wifi in Powell/White Halls is working but other areas still need
improvements like Polk Hall.
 Senator Austin W. will meet with Mike Davis about new housing project
ideas and vending machines in the Ponder Room.
 New business was looking in the Lost and Found policies and how items
are handled.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None.
NEW BUSINESS
S1415-041
I move that the Senate approve the Spring 2015 Budget.
1.
2.
Discussion:
committee.
Senator
Tiffany
D.
said
we
Tiffany Durocher
Meah Johnson
discussed
the
Spring
budget
in
Vice President Mary S. said this motion will be tabled.
S1415-042
I move to allocate up to $500 to purchase Mardi Gras Beads for students
riding in a Nicholls Float for the Krewe of Ambrosia on February 7 at 5:30
p.m. The money will come from the Senator Project line item of the budget.
1.
2.
Tommy Thibodeaux
Emily Sauce
Discussion: Senator Tommy T. defers discussion to President Adam L. He said
he learned from different sources that Ambrosia gave Nicholls a free float in
the parade to get Nicholls out there in the community for our Nicholls
Awareness Campaign.
They have the Dance Team, the Cheerleaders, students
from different sports and Tillou. They spent about $1,500 on beads and want
to make sure they have a chance to throw and not run out of beads so they
asked us to help.
We spoke to Terry Dupre in Purchasing who approved the
vendor.
We need to have a motion for it.
If you accept, we’ll go on and
purchase it.
COMMENT:
Senator Lawrence A. asked where the beads were coming from.
President Adam L. said a vendor in Houma.
COMMENT:
Senator Austin W. asked if the SGA logo would be on
anything.
President Adam L. said it will probably be on
the float in the form of a poster.
Question: Move into vote
Passed For-11
Against-0
Abstained-0
NEW BUSINESS CONTINUED
S1415-043
I move to allocate up to $2,600 to purchase a security camera in the Library.
The price breaks down as follows:
Extreme B5G124-24P2 Network Switch
Axis P3354 Camera
=
=
$1,977
599
This should be taken from the Senator Project line item of the budget.
1.
2.
Yaye Ba
Jessica Fradella
Discussion: Senator Yaye B. said we spoke about it last semester. It’s for
the Library for use at night when people enter and exit the building.
I
think it will be good for all of us to have in case something happens.
Vice President Mary S. said the motion is over $500 so it will be tabled
until next week.
S1415-044
I move that the Senate renew “The Lefort Corollary” for the Spring 2015
semester following Article 3, Section 2 of “The Lefort Corollary”.
1.
2.
Lawrence Arceneaux, III
Jessica Fradella
Discussion:
Senator Lawrence A. said we discussed the motion in Judiciary
and found it highly favorable with the exception that he amends it allowing
students to have a drink of water, coffee or tea at the meeting.
Senator
Austin W. will have more on this.
S1415-044a
I move that the Senate amend Article Five, Section 6 of The Lefort
Corollary”.
The Senate finds the current wording unfavorable.
As amended,
Article Five, Section 6 will state “No Food will be consumed during meetings.
Drinks may be consumed as long as they’re in closed and discreet containers.
1.
2.
Austin Wendt
Lawrence Arceneaux, III
Discussion:
Senator Austin W. said what we came up with in the Judiciary
Committee is that at the beginning of the year, we said that water may be
acceptable. We could allow other drinks in a closed container.
Question: Move into vote
Passed For-11
Against-0
Abstained-0
S1415-045a
I move to suspend the Rules of Procedures to allow the motion to be heard.
The reason for the suspension is the motion is in violation of Article VIII,
Letter B., Number 6 of the Rules of Procedures (The motion is over $500.00).
1.
2.
Move into vote:
Passed For-11
Against-0
Emily Sauce
Lawrence Arceneaux, III
Abstained-0
S1415-045
I move that the Senate allocate $980.00 to be taken from the Senator Projects
line item of the budget. These funds would be allocated according to Article
XII, Section D., Number 5 of the Bylaws titled “Rules for SGA CO-Sponsorship”
for the co-sponsorship of The Louisiana Academy of Sciences Annual Conference
to be held at Nicholls State University on March 13-14, 2015.
Funds would
cover the registration fees of $35.00 per student for up to 28 Nicholls
students to attend.
1. Emily Sauce
2. Tommy Thibodeaux
Question: Move into vote
Passed For-11
Against-0
Abstained-0
UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE REPORTS
None.
DISCUSSION PERIOD:
None.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None.
There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m.