S.G.A. SENATE MEETING
March 23, 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 Peyton Chiasson and the prayer was given by
Senator Micah Hebert.
The Nicholls Student Government Association Mission Statement was read by
Senator Taylor Bruce and Senator Meah Johnson 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, Les Theriot, Markos Picou, Trey Clark, Peyton Chiasson, Emily Sauce,
Austin Wendt, Tommy Thibodeaux, Tiffany Durocher, Katelyn Cortez, Abigail
Ledet, Charles Johns, Micah Hebert, Darian Graivshark, Taylor Bruce and
Kaitlyn Mistretta.
The following Senators were absent:
Grant Ordoyne and Jessica Fradella.
Web Tech was represented by Trey Clark.
Student Supreme Court was represented by Justice Dane Vizier, Jr.
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 and Ross Jahnke,
Chair of the Quality Enhancement Program for Nicholls.
No Minutes were presented.
GUEST SPEAKER:
Nicholls
Ross Jahnke, Chair of the Quality Enhancement Program for
The Quality Enhancement Plan is a component of the University’s accreditation
through SACS. SACS is the Southern Association of the Colleges and Schools.
They accredit the whole university and the Federal government uses that info
as validation of a university as to whether they need Federal aid or Federal
support. Having no Federal support is worse than having no State money.
The Quality Enhancement Plan is a component of accreditation and we’re one of
the first to go through our second round of enhancement plans to follow. You
may remember in the Spring, there was a survey that probably a lot of you
filled out. They were trying to find out what the students thought should be
fixed around campus.
We also surveyed faculty and staff.
In the Fall, we
did a survey on advising because by the time we received all of that from the
Spring, there were a lot of concerns.
So we came up with Student Advising
and Mentoring or SAM. Simply, advising is more than just scheduling classes
and mentoring is more than advising. So what we’re trying to do is improve
the whole advising change based on the academic advising that you all knew as
Freshmen; bring that level of quality to advising that occurs in majors with
your faculty because you move out of the Advising Center after your Freshman
year. You move into the College of Business or the Art Department or
whatever.
We’re trying to improve the Sophomore, Junior and Senior level
advising experience.
We also want more mentoring between faculty and
students where the students are more involved in research, more involved in
service oriented projects, more involved in service to the university and
also more involved with non-academic activities.
For instance, Student
Government but also incidentals like sports, have a number of events to
participate in other things.
Basically, we’re building a stronger link
between the student and the faculty at the university. So we have a Mission
Statement.
We developed six basic goals and I’ll go over them quickly
because I want to hear what you have to say.
GUEST SPEAKER CONTINUED:
We want to improve student success and the advising process. Also, we want
you to be better prepared. We want you to have a better understanding of the
structure of the scheduling of the classes you’re taking and why you’re
taking those classes for your general education and things like that.
As a
result of that you will progress to your degree quicker.
More of you will
graduate on time. You’re probably aware that when the State counts numbers,
they count the number of people who come in 2009 and by the end of 2015, they
graduate.
That’s the important number.
We want more of you and your
constituents to graduate on time.
We also want you to be more involved in
the things I mentioned earlier.
We want to raise the priority of advising
campus wide, not just the priority for you, but we also want to raise faculty
priority. We want to improve the quality of a training program that we have
in conjunction with the Academic Advising Center and have more effective
Advisors.
Particularly the students that are cross enrolled at Fletcher
sometimes miss that Freshman advising experience and then they get lost in
advising when they go into their majors. Also, students transferring to the
University often get lost in the advising system.
You also have students
that change their majors.
Maybe your advisors talk to each other but they
probably don’t so we want to make sure those transitions work.
The last goal is the one the students most strongly ask for, even if it’s
still off to the left of what we’re doing.
We want to make sure that the
courses you need are available.
We’re hoping we can solve this with some
software that will be able to predict the need for courses well ahead of
time, that by looking at how many Freshmen might be coming in a year, we’ll
be able to see how many Math 101’s we need or 102’s and so on. The software
allows us to do that, we potentially don’t have that far advanced a system
given the budget situation.
COMMENT:
President Adam L. said we need to look into offering
something more for Freshman where they have 15 hours they
give you when you first enroll, they give you 15 hours
every semester until you graduate. Our problem is when you
go to your advisor and they tell you that you didn’t take
this class three semesters ago. Mr. Jahnke said we are
looking at things that would make the transitions easier.
Your Freshman advising is actually really good and looking
at the advising around other campuses.
The Academic
Advising Center does a pretty thorough job. The problem is
that the situation occurs after that time, getting into the
Sophomore years, that happens quite a bit. It also happens
to the students who are coming in transferring from other
places. Right from the start when they go through the
Advising Center, they get a pretty good coverage of what
they need. If you’re interested in incoming Freshmen, this
really is dealing more with Sophomores to Senior or even
Sophomore to graduate student’s level. We’ll try to fix
that.
COMMENT:
Senator Yaye B. said the International students are
affected when they get here. Mr. Jahnke said International
students may not be here as Freshman but be transferring on
an exchange program so we want to make sure that their move
to campus academically includes where they were and what
they’re doing here.
COMMENT:
Senator Tiffany D. asked if there is a way for everyone to
have a curriculum plan. Mr. Jahnke said the system already
exists and the Academic Advising Center uses it but every
department handles advising a little differently. We have
the DreamWorks software.
COMMENT:
Vice President Mary S. asked how they plan to increase
student participation. I think that if a lot of students
don’t get involved and don’t get vested in the college
experience, they’re not as likely to graduate. My professor
happened to come up and ask me if I’d be interested in
getting involved whereas a lot of people are not in a
position of being asked. I don’t think they realize how
those opportunities are available to them. Mr. Jahnke said
one of the things we want to train the faculty to do when
they advise is not just to set up these schedules for every
semester.
What we have in our department and some others
is sort of a cheat sheet for the faculty. It reminds the
faculty of all the opportunities that we have for the
GUEST SPEAKER CONTINUED:
students. So when the students sit in the office and we’re
doing a scheduling for advising, they can look at it and
say by the way, have you thought about getting involved in
things like that.
On one goal, there is a list in Roman Numerals and we’ve divided up into
general student experiences and opportunities and decided at what point in
your academic advising are you hearing about these things.
For instance,
after 60 hours, we want the advisor to talk to the student about
undergraduate research, thinking about careers or graduate school.
When
you’re at the first 30 hours, we want to talk to you about clubs and other
activities on campus. The idea would be that faculty members could look at
where you are in your curriculum stage and whether you need to start looking
into getting involved in a research project so that what you’re asking about
it, it starts to happen. What we’re trying to do is get the faculty to start
talking about those things regularly. Some of you skip advising.
COMMENT:
Director Carolanne M. said she’s not even asked to go to
advising.
She’s a Music Major and they pretty much do
their own thing. Mr. Jahnke said some of the students just
go by the catalog. Director Carolanne M. said that’s what
she did.
With this software, we’d like the advisor to go into your advising file and
give you a couple of hours to sign up for your classes.
If you are a
Sophomore and able to sign up on Tuesday at midnight, you can start signing
up for your classes at 4:00 p.m. if you see your advisor.
These goals are our wish list. What we have to do now is to find out what we
can afford to implement, what the students are going to like and dislike or
ask us to change.
We’ll find out what the President says we can or cannot
afford but those goals we discussed are what we need to address to get more
retention and get more students enrolled, which means we can get more money
and get more faculty to do more things here.
If anyone is interested in
serving on this committee, please do so because we would love to have more
student representation.
OFFICER REPORTS
PRESIDENT’S REPORT – ADAM LEFORT
I sent an email out to all students about the “Gathering”.
This Thursday,
we’re going to host a “Gathering”. It’s going to be about the budget issue.
On Wednesday, when the Board of Regents meets, they’re announcing the actual
budget breakdown from the State.
It’s going to be broken down into each
System, not each University, so we’ll have a better idea of what is going to
happen. So we decided to have a “Gathering” to discuss it. In the email, I
kind of piggy backed on campus improvements’ WTF (What’s the Frustration).
We’ll put the suggestion box in the middle of the Union and we’ll have a box
at the Scantron Giveaway where students can write down any questions or
concerns they have for Dr. Murphy. We’ll give it to him before Thursday so
he can address them at the “Gathering” because it’s hard to know what the
students want to hear. This is going to be held this Thursday. Please attend
if you can. It’s between classes. I’ll be at the University Council meeting
tomorrow and will ask professors to be lenient and ask them to encourage
students to attend. I already spoke to Dr. Todd Keller and we’re on the same
page as faculty and students both want to know so the more involved we are
the better. If you have any questions you want Dr. Murphy to address, write
them down and put them in the box we have so we’ll give it to him.
The second one is the Council of Student Body Presidents Higher Education
Demonstration that we talked about last week. On April 15th, we’re going to
the State Capitol to talk about the budget issues.
I spoke to Dr. Brigett
Scott, the Faculty Senate President, about this and how we’re going to ask
faculty to be more lenient so students can attend and to show support for
higher education.
We’re going to get a bus for students to attend.
I’ve
talked to Dr. Dial about it so that’s in the works.
I’ll have more
information later. Tomorrow, we plan to announce it to all students so they
can attend if they’re interested.
Tomorrow is our Scantron Giveaway so when you’re at the Scantron Giveaway,
we’ll have a suggestion box so make sure to tell students that if they have
any problems, to put them in the box. This doesn’t have to be just budgeting
wise but it can be for campus improvements also.
OFFICER REPORTS CONTINUED:
PRESIDENT’S REPORT CONTINUED:
Swamp Stomp was this weekend.
Thank you to everybody who attended. We had
343 students in attendance throughout the whole weekend. It’s a little short
from last year when we had around 462 attend but it was a good weekend to
attend.
Elections are going on right now so be sure to tell everyone to vote.
If
there is a complaint, please submit it to Ms. Amanda Fremin in the Office of
Student Affairs while Ms. Dolly is out.
Tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, we’re going to get student workers to come
into the SGA office from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. from Student Affairs to
assist students because Ms. Dolly M. is out.
Tomorrow I have a University Council meeting.
DIRECTOR OF STUDENT RIGHTS & GRIEVANCES’ REPORT – CAROLANNE MOORE


Don’t forget that the 5th WID/WIH form is due this Friday at noon.
Don’t forget to add to WIH whether the person you took a complaint from
is a commuter or a resident and don’t forget to include their email.
TREASURER’S REPORT – BOBBY DUFRENE



We have a University Budget Committee meeting this Thursday and will
let you know how it turns out.
I’ll also check the copier machines and get a report to you once our
motions are finished.
Please come out and support our “Gathering”. Even if you have
questions and you don’t want us to know it’s from you, please submit it
so it can be addressed.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS’ REPORT – LILLIE BOURGEOIS



Tomorrow, March 24th, and Wednesday, March 25th, is our second Scantron
Giveaway from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Student Union. We’ll serve
coffee cake and lemonade at this event. This is an election week so
encourage students to vote. Also the Giveaway is mandatory for you to
attend for 30 minutes so if you can’t attend, turn in an excuse.
Friday, March 27th is the men’s baseball game against Southeastern at
6:00 p.m.
We’ll hand out Beat Southeastern t-shirts left over from
football season.
Please advertise this to the students. I’ll have an
ad to post.
Also, Coach Thibodaux has talked to me personally about
student attendance at baseball games.
He said that they play so much
better when they have students behind them cheering them on so really
encourage students to attend.
I’ll continue to post information about Spring Elections.
Please
remind students to vote because it’s really important.
VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT – MARY SAUCE




Encourage everyone to vote and make sure they realize that this decides
their representation.
I’ll attend the University Budget Committee meeting on Thursday.
Stacy Weiland has asked us to announce that Student Services is putting
on the “Vagina Monologues” production this week on Thursday, Friday and
Saturday starting from 7:00 p.m. on all three nights.
Tickets can be
purchased in Student Services in Elkins.
Advanced tickets are $5.00
for students, faculty and staff.
Tickets at the door will be $10.00.
Tickets, shirts and buttons will be available for purchase all week in
the Union from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Shirts vary in price from $5.00
to $15.00 and buttons vary from $1.00 to $3.00.
SPA is still hosting their baseball trip this Wednesday.
The bus
leaves at 3:30 p.m. and the tickets are $10.00. Their playing ULL.
OFFICER REPORTS CONTINUED:
VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT CONTINUED:
ACTIONS TAKEN ON OLD BILLS
S1415-059
I move to make the Scantron Giveaways on March 24 th and 25th mandatory for all
Senators to work and attend. Senators must work for at least half an hour on
at least one of the two days. Passed and signed.
S1415-060
I move that the Senate purchase 25 earbuds for the Dyslexia Center. The cost
for 25 earbuds will be $74.75. This will come from the Senator Projects line
item of the budget. Passed and signed.
S1415-061
I move that the Senate allocate $1,000 per year for a three year period to
purchase one 3’ x 7’ sign to be placed on the outside fence of all home
softball games and one 3’ x 7’ sign to be placed on the outside fence of all
baseball games. Tabled.
S1415-062
I move that SGA sponsor 10 tickets for the students to attend the Women’s
History Month Luncheon on March 31, 2015.
The tickets are $18.00 each and
the cost will not exceed $180.00.
Funds should be taken out of Senator
Projects line item of the budget. Passed and signed.
S1415-063
I move that the Senate amend the SGA Leadership Graduate Scholarship from
awarding 15 scholarships at #200 each to awarding 8 scholarships at $00 each.
This will increase the total budgeted amount for the scholarship from $3,-000
to $3,200.
The SGA Leadership Graduate Scholarship line item in the budget
will increase by $200 beginning with the Fall 2015 semester. Tabled.
S1415-064
I move that the Senate purchase an M8 Charging Station that will be placed in
the Union for student use.
The cost for the one Charging Station will be
$899.00. This will come from the Senator Projects line item of the budget.
Tabled.
S1415-065
I move that the SGA purchase three microscopes at $199.99 for the Physical
Sciences Department totaling $599.97.
This will come from the Senator
Projects line item of the budget. Tabled.
STUDENT SUPREME COURT REPORT – Dane Vizier, Jr.
No report.
ELECTION COMMISSION REPORT
No report.
WEB TECH REPORT – Trey Clark
Updated the website and working on getting pictures.
SGA SENATE COMMITTEE REPORTS
Finance Committee – Tiffany Durocher, Chair
Present:
Senators Tiffany Durocher, Lawrence Arceneaux, III,
Chiasson, Katelyn Cortez, Charles Johns, Meah Johnson,
Picou, Emily Sauce, Les Theriot, Tommy Thibodeaux and
Graivshark.
Peyton
Markos
Darian
Absent:
Senators Yaye Ba, Trey Clark, Micah Hebert and Jessica Fradella.
Guest:
Treasurer Bobby Dufrene.
SGA SENATE COMMITTEE REPORTS CONTINUED:
Finance Committee Continued:
Today we discussed the following:
 Additional information about the athletic sign motion that will be
voted on today.
 Reminded the committee about the other three tabled motions that will
be voted on today:
the Graduate Scholarship motion, the Charging
Station Motion and the Microscope motion.
 A motion to buy a dry erase board for the Tutoring Center was found
highly favorable.
Judiciary Committee – Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Chair; Austin Wendt, Co-Chair
Present:
Senators Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Trey Clark, Meah Johnson, Tommy
Thibodeaux, Emily Sauce, Taylor Bruce, Kaitlyn Mistretta and
Darian Graivshark.
Absent:
Senators Austin Wendt, Yaye Ba, Peyton Chiasson,
Fradella, Markos Pico, Micah Hebert and Charles Johns.
Jessica
We discussed the following:
 Reviewed one absentee form and after discussion, excused it.
Meet the SGA/Social Events: Mr/Ms Nicholls/Banquet - Homecoming/Christmas) –
Grant Ordoyne, Chair
Present:
Senators Grant Ordoyne, Peyton Chiasson, Abigail Ledet,
Theriot, Tommy Thibodeaux, Austin Wendt and Taylor Bruce.
Absent:
Senator Emily Sauce.
Les
We discussed the following:
 Scantron Giveaways going on within the next couple of day.
It is a
mandatory event so all Senators are encouraged to work.
 Talked about the Nicholls baseball game versus Southeastern taking
place on Friday. We’ll hand out “Beat Southeastern” shirts to students
as they enter the ball park.
 This week is election week so everyone is encouraged to exercise their
right to vote.
Campus Improvements Committee – Peyton Chiasson, Chair; Tommy Thibodeaux, CoChair;
Present:
Senators Peyton Chiasson, Tommy Thibodeaux, Katelyn Cortez,
Tiffany Durocher, Charles Johns, Abigail Ledet, Austin Wendt,
Taylor Bruce and Kaitlyn Mistretta.
Absent:
Senators Jessica Fradella and Grant Ordoyne.
Guest:
President Adam Lefort.
We discussed the following:
 Campus Wifi - We resolved that the Campus Improvements Committee will
try to write a proposal to the Student Tech Fee Committee next semester
for renovation of the campus Wifi.
 Resolved that the wasp infestation in Brady is being taken care of.
 The possibility of Sodexho offering oatmeal for breakfast on weekend
mornings.
President Adam L. spoke to the committee about the Scantron Giveaway and
What’s the Frustration event on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
COMMENT:
President Adam L. said he spoke to the IT Dept. and the
Wifi issue will be discussed at the Tech Fee Committee
meeting next Tuesday.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
S1415-063a
I move to take the graduate scholarship motion off the table.
1.
2.
Move into vote
Passed For-18
Against-0
Lawrence Arceneaux, III
Austin Wendt
Abstained-0
S1415-063
I move that the Senate amend the SGA Leadership Graduate Scholarship from
awarding 15 scholarships at $200 each to awarding 8 scholarships at $400
each. This will increase the total budgeted amount for the scholarship from
$3,000 to $3,200.
The SGA Leadership Graduate Scholarship line item in the
budget will increase by $200 beginning with the Fall 2015 semester.
1.
2.
Tiffany Durocher
Les Theriot
Discussion:
Senator Tiffany D. said last week we spoke about these
scholarships, that there are 15 scholarships and students aren’t applying for
them.
We think by offering fewer and increasing the amount, more students
will apply.
Question: Move into vote
Passed For-18
Against-0
Abstained-0
S1415-064a
I move to take the motion for the M8 Charging Station off the table.
1.
2.
Move into vote
Passed For-18
Against-0
Austin Wendt
Payton Chiasson
Abstained-0
S1415-064
I move that the Senate purchase an M8 Charging Station that will be placed in
the Union for student use.
The cost for the one Charging Station will be
$899.00. This will come from the Senator Projects line item of the budget.
1.
2.
Austin Wendt
Peyton Chiasson
Discussion:
Senator Austin W. said the Union requested we purchase another
charging station for student use. It will be placed around tables and chairs
and will help with the increased traffic of people charging phones.
Question: Move into vote
Passed For-18
Against-0
Abstained-0
S1415-065a
I move to take the Microscopes motion off the table.
1.
2.
Move into vote
Passed For-18
Against-0
Lawrence Arceneaux, III
Austin Wendt
Abstained-0
S1415-065
I move that the SGA purchase three microscopes at $199.99 for the Physical
Sciences Department totaling $599.97.
This will come from the Senator
Projects line item of the budget.
1. Darian Graivshark
2. Tommy Thibodeaux
Discussion:
Senator Darian G. said the Physical Sciences Dept. needs these
microscopes.
Question: Move into vote
Passed For-18
Against-0
Abstained-0
UNFINISHED BUSINESS CONTINUED:
S1415-061a
I move to take the athletic signs motion from the table.
1.
2.
Move into vote
Passed For-18
Against-0
Lawrence Arceneaux, III
Darian Graivshark
Abstained-0
S1415-061
I move that the Senate allocate $1,000 per year for a three year period to
purchase one 3’ x 7’ sign to be placed on the outside fence of all home
softball games and one 3’ x 7’ sign to be placed on the outside fence of all
baseball games.
1. Kaitlyn Mistretta
2. Darian Graivshark
Discussion:
Senator Kaitlyn Mistretta defers to President Adam L. who
explained that SGA does this this every three years to promote SGA. If you
drive by the Baseball and Softball fields, you’ll see a large sign with SGA
on it. It not only promotes SGA but also helps Athletics with their baseball
and softball facilities. It’s a renewal of what we’ve been doing. I spoke
to them about the contract today.
We’ll pay $1,000 every year.
It’s not
$3,000 up front, its spread over the next three years. The last time we did
this was under Matthew Jewell and before that, it was Brittany Taraba. It’s
another promotion for us.
Question: Move into vote
Passed For-17
Against-0
Abstained-1
NEW BUSINESS
S1415-066
I move to allocate up to $350.00 to purchase a Quartet Porcelain Dry-Erase
Board (48” x 72”) for the Tutorial Academic and Enhancement Center. The cost
of the board is $280.99 and taxes are about $25.00. Shipping will be free.
This will be taken from the Senator Projects line item of the budget.
1.
2.
Katelyn Cortez
Les Theriot
Discussion: Senator Katelyn Cortez said there are two boards in that room.
One is worse than the other.
I spoke to them and they advised they don’t
have the money to fix them. There are over 400 students using the facilities
and another 2,000 visits as well so I think it would be a good thing for
them.
Question: Move into vote
Passed For-18
Against-0
Abstained-0
UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE REPORTS
None.
DISCUSSION PERIOD:
None.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Tommy T.
Kappa Sigma is having a Kickball Tournament as a Give
Back Night – I think it would be good for SGA to have
a team. If you’re interested, contact me.
Adam L.
This Thursday SPA is having a Celebration of Colors
at 3:00 p.m.
This is probably one of the biggest
things they host.
All you do is wear a white shirt
and throw the colors up in the air and run under it.
Please try to attend that.
Mary S.
Sigma
is
having
a
Volleyball
Tournament
this
Thursday. Let me know if you’re interested in
joining. It’s $20 to participate.
There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m.