S.G.A. SENATE MEETING
April 13, 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 Jessica Fradella.
The Nicholls Student Government Association Mission Statement was read by
Senator Darian Graivshark and Senator Peyton Chiasson 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, Grant Ordoyne, Markos Picou, Peyton Chiasson, Jessica
Fradella, Tiffany Durocher, Katelyn Cortez, Abigail Ledet, Charles Johns,
Darian Graivshark, Taylor Bruce and Kaitlyn Mistretta.
The following Senators were absent:
Tommy Thibodeaux and Micah Hebert.
Trey Clark, Emily Sauce, Austin Wendt,
Web Tech was not represented.
Student Supreme Court was represented by Justice Celia Ordoyne.
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, Stephanie Verdin,
Director of Marketing and Communications and Francis Plaisance, Jr., Account
Representative for The Blood Center.
No Minutes were presented.
GUEST SPEAKER:
Francis Plaisance, Jr. - The Blood Center
Thank you and welcome back to school from Spring Break.
We’ll be here on
April 21st and 22nd from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. throughout the course of the
day. It’s very important to us and we hope it is to you. We need your help
to do some recruitment. Last year on this drive we did well and hope to do
as well. We need people to take time to help others. You save three lives
when you donate blood. When you come in and donate a pint of blood, if you
have family, friends or relatives within the Continental United States, you
get unlimited blood coverage.
Our program is the only one like it in the
United States. If anything happens, you file a claim with The Blood Center
and they give you a check. Also, you can do replacement if you know somebody
who needs blood.
There’s a credit for every pint of blood you donate.
We
also have the Heart Club if you want to come in and donate blood and save
three lives. You get whatever we’re giving away, usually a t-shirt. You can
also send a child along with a sibling to Camp Challenge here in Louisiana in
the first week of August.
It’s very expensive, it’s $250 for one child.
They go out there and have a good time and normally wouldn’t have that
experience. The Blood Center is not a charitable organization. According to
law, it has a non-profit status as presenting a service to the community.
There are a lot of students going back and forth and we know time is an
issue. Be sure you have a good meal. Always have something to eat or you
won’t be able to give. Start two or three days in advance to eat breakfast.
Stephanie Verdin, Director of Marketing and Communications.
President Adam L. met with me at the beginning of the Fall semester to let me
know that SGA had been putting aside money in its budget to help promote the
University.
One of the projects we talked about was getting more Nicholls
Signage on our light poles in town and also replacing those on campus. It’s
GUEST SPEAKER CONTINUED:
been about eight years since we had the signs that are out there now. Some
of them are mildewed, faded and the photos are of students who have graduated
so it’s really the right time for us to redo this. What’s taking so long is
in the Fall we had changes and from my perspective, I really wanted the “N”
with the sword to be for everyone on campus to view, not just Athletics.
Previously the sword was only the Athletic logo and I think that’s what
people associate with Nicholls immediately.
When you’re driving down Canal
Blvd. and see it, it catches your attention and you know its Nicholls. That
was approved that the logo could be used by anyone on campus just a couple of
months ago. The first thing we did was meet with the City to talk about what
kind of opportunities there were to put them on the light poles. There are
some on Canal Blvd. but if we look at North and South Canal Boulevard, there
is an opportunity to put 46 banners along that street.
There’s also an
opportunity for 19 banners to be hung up in downtown Thibodaux and 16 on
Tiger Drive.
All of those locations are managed by the City of Thibodaux.
We’d give them the banners and they have a schedule to put them up, take them
down and store them when not being used.
Of course, the City has its own
banners for the Fireman’s Fair and other city functions so they will work
with us. Typically, we’ve requested the banners to go up at the beginning of
the Fall and Spring semesters for Homecoming, Family Day, Commencement or any
other special event we have going on. We try to work around what they have
going on as well. Perhaps for the Fireman’s Fair, they’ll be taken down on
Tiger Drive but they do a good job of managing all of the maintenance work.
For our campus banners, years ago the campus was very different.
A lot of
the campus areas have new light poles but no banners at all. A lot of them
have fallen off or been taken down so we’ve gone around to see where it makes
more sense to put them up. We have it broken down, focusing on where those
light poles are to immediately attach those banners. It does include the new
Culinary Facility.
It came down to 81 banners off campus with ordering 10
extra on hand for replacement.
We’re looking at ordering 72 banners on
campus
and ordering 10 extra.
When we quoted those out, it came out to
about $10,000 for the production of those banners.
We’ll have to order 57
sets of hardware for campus light poles for about $4,000 but we’ll cover
that. It’s really gracious of SGA to help us promote Nicholls. We’d like to
get those ordered so that we’d have them for the Fall semester. This is only
one aspect of many marketing issues we have going on.
We’re also working
with Restaurants to have Nicholls coasters and things like that. What we’re
really hoping is that it helps us look more like a college campus and a
college town.
(A sample was distributed of the banner).
We came up with different slogans for different aspects of campus.
Some of
them are a little more spirit related, some of them are more academic related
and some of them are leadership. We’ll want different inspirational related
banners around the facilities.
COMMENT:
Secretary Dolly M. asked if the SGA logo will be on the
banner or the SGA letters.
Ms. Verdin said we haven’t
talked about it but it’s something we can talk about.
Secretary Dolly M. said I ask because there are banners I
saw at Southeastern that include their SGA logos.
At the
very bottom are the letters SGA and the words Student
Government Association. I would think it would be for the
larger banners that they plan to put up downtown.
Ms.
Verdin said the ones downtown will be larger than the ones
on campus because our campus light poles are pretty small
compared to the light poles on Canal Blvd. Secretary Dolly
M. asked if it’s been bid out.
Ms. Verdin said not yet.
We have the price quote but as soon as we get your
approval, we’ll bid it out.
We spoke to companies we’ve
worked with about the signage so we know it will be around
this amount. This quote came from a vendor in Baton Rouge.
It will be in that price range.
I would also like to thank SGA for your support with the Fountain Project.
The response was beyond our imagination.
It was our first venture into
trying to see how people would respond. It was an incredible project for us.
We had originally scheduled the rededication to be this Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
but because it’s predicted that we’ll have 100% chance of rain on Thursday,
we rescheduled it for next Thursday at 5:00 p.m.
We’d like as many of you
there as possible.
It will be a great honor not only for Nicholls but for
the city. So I thank you for your support on that.
OFFICER REPORTS
PRESIDENT’S REPORT – ADAM LEFORT
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This Sunday at 2:00 p.m., the Women’s Tennis team will be playing. If
they win this tournament, they’ll become Southland Conference Champs so
that’s a very great thing to hear.
This week is Orientation. If you’re working, try to wear red this week,
every day, so students see you on campus.
Next week, Dr. Caruso and students are putting on the “Take Back the
Night” event in front of Elkins on Wednesday night. We’re going to
present a Proclamation so please attend to support this.
Motions – we have two meetings left so please get your motions in. The
E-Board has a lot of ideas so please come to us.
For the Alumni Director, we interviewed applicants two weeks ago and
are meeting this Thursday to start making our recommendations to Dr.
Murphy. Also the Provost Search is Thursday for interviews with the top
four or five finalists.
Wednesday is our Rally at the State Capitol. I’d like you to help
promote it.
We have two people signed up so far. We’ve allocated a
good bit of money to get students to attend so please promote it. The
entire COSBP System is looking forward to having a good Rally. All SGA
Presidents will speak. We invited Legislators to speak to the students
so they’ll give you a brief statement on what they’re doing.
There
will also be an open mic to share your experience on how the budget
cuts have affected you.
We’re also doing a social media campaign on
Facebook where you can share how the budget cuts affect you and what
your university college experience has done for you. You can tag it.
The larger group we have at this event will create a greater effect to
stop the budget cuts.
There is a $600 million deficit for higher
education. It’s about 80% cut from what we already have. The Faculty
Senate has been contacted already so they’ll be promoting the Rally.
You are the voice of the students so it’s important that you attend.
You’ll meet other people from other universities.
COMMENT:

Vice President Mary S. suggested posting the information
and the amounts on the SGA Facebook page so we can share it
with other students.
The numbers should make people more
aware about how serious this is.
President Adam L. said they cut a pdf file they’ve been doing that is
just from Nicholls that shows our retention rate, enrollment with our
competitors who are around the same size and the overall effect of how
we are still going up.
We’re probably one of the worst with tuition
and fees going up and then our enrollment is dropping drastically.
This Friday, if you have motions for over $500, it’s the last day to
turn those in because they will be tabled for the last meeting. If you
don’t want to present a motion to suspend the Bylaws, get those in by
Friday.
DIRECTOR OF STUDENT RIGHTS & GRIEVANCES’ REPORT – CAROLANNE MOORE
We have a WID/WIH form due this Friday so make sure you’re going around
campus to students and faculty as well to see how things can be improved on
campus.
Please work the tables tomorrow at Orientation and share the posts. I often
see President Adam L. and Director Lillie B. posting things and nobody shares
them.
If anyone should be sharing them it’s you because you’re in SGA.
Please share those because otherwise students will not know.
It’s a
student’s right to know they can go to the State Capitol and talk about their
problems with the higher education deal.
Please be pro-active about it.
It’s also something you can put on your WID form.
TREASURER’S REPORT – BOBBY DUFRENE
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Don’t forget
taxes done.
The last day
your motions
that this Wednesday is Tax Day. Don’t forget to get your
It’s my job to inform everybody.
for us to make purchases is April 24th so make sure to get
in for this Friday.
OFFICER REPORTS CONTINUED
TREASURER’S REPORT CONTINUED
 Regarding the money for the Banners, the money was allocated last
semester so you won’t see it in this semester’s budget. It’s still
pending in last semester’s budget. I can get you a copy if you need
one. The money is there, we just needed a presentation of what the
banners would look like.
 If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS’ REPORT – LILLIE BOURGEOIS
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Orientations are this week. We had a good turn out today. I’ll pass
around the sign-up sheet if you can work Tuesday, Wednesday or
Thursday. These students are the cream of the crop students and will
probably be future Senators so we really want SGA to be well
represented.
If you can work the table in front of the Union tomorrow, we’re going
to have a table from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to sign up students for the
bus trip.
Also, President Adam L. will be speaking on behalf of the
U.L. System and I’ll be speaking on behalf of Nicholls at this event so
we’d really like your support.
This Sunday, April 19th, Women’s Tennis is playing. If you’re available
please volunteer to hand out our left over “Beat Southeastern” shirts.
Students have asked that we support the Tennis teams more to help
promote students to attend.
Our Scantron Giveaway is next Tuesday and Wednesday, April 21 st and 22nd
and it will be 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Quad.
It will be a
mandatory event as always so please turn out for this.
For the Banquet, please sign up to confirm your attendance and the
number of your guests.
VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT – MARY SAUCE
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I’m going to post the WID/WIH so try to get those in.
If you haven’t written at least one motion, please try to do so. Talk
to your professors or departments.
Encourage students to attend the Rally event because it’s shocking to
see how little we’re getting funded, just $4 million.
The budget we
need to operate is much more than $4 million.
ACTIONS TAKEN ON OLD BILLS
S1415-067
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 $26.00. Shipping will be free.
This will be taken from the Senator Projects line item of the budget. Passed
and signed.
S1415-068
I move that Senate allocate up to $1,500 to provide a charter bus for 55
students to attend a Higher Education Rally at the State Capitol in Baton
Rouge on April 15, 2015. The costs are broken down as follows:
Quote for Charter Bus
Travel Insurance ($.15/student)
TOTAL
= $1,205.00
= ____$8.25
= $1,213.25
This will be taken from the Professional Services line item of the budget.
Passed and signed.
S1415-069
I move that Senate allocate up to $150 to purchase protest signs for the
Higher Education Rally on April 15, 2015. The signs will say “No Funds, No
Future”. The price breakdown is as follows:
OFFICER REPORTS CONTINUED
VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT CONTINUED
50 Signs
= $100
Shipping
= $30
TOTAL = $130
This will come from the Senator Projects line item of the budget.
signed.
Passed and
S1415-070
I move that Senate allocate up to $150 to purchase protest signs for the
Higher Education Rally on April 15, 2015.
The signs will say “Enough is
Enough”. The price breakdown is as follows:
50 Signs
= $100
Shipping
= $30
TOTAL = $130
This will come from the Senator Projects line item of the budget.
signed.
Passed and
S1415-071
I move that the Senate allocate funds from the Professional Services line
item of the budget to cover the cost of fuel to use the small, 32-passenger
Nicholls bus to take students to the State Capitol in Baton Rouge on April
15, 2015.
Also, the travel insurance cost will be $0.15/student at $4.80.
Passed and signed.
S1415-072
I move to increase the budgeted amount of the Spring 2015 Senator Projects
line item of the budget from $15,000 to $21,000.
The money will come from
unallocated funds. Tabled.
S1415-073
I move that the Senate purchase one Guillotine Paper Cutter for the Art
Department, which will cost $424.19.
This will come from the Senator
Projects line item of the budget. Passed and signed.
STUDENT SUPREME COURT REPORT – Celia Ordoyne
Applications for SPA chair positions are due by April 24th.
ELECTION COMMISSION REPORT
No report.
WEB TECH REPORT
No report.
SGA SENATE COMMITTEE REPORTS
Finance Committee – Tiffany Durocher, Chair
Present:
Senators Tiffany Durocher, Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Yaye Ba,
Peyton Chiasson, Katelyn Cortez, Meah Johnson, Les Theriot,
Jessica Fradella and Darian Graivshark.
Absent:
Senators Trey Clark, Micah Hebert, Charles Johns, Markos Picou
Emily Sauce and Tommy Thibodeaux.
Guest:
Treasurer Bobby Dufrene.
Today we discussed the following:
 A motion to increase the Senator Projects line item of the budget that
is on the table.
 Any ideas that Senators have for motions and reminded the committee
that we only have two meetings left.
Motions over $500 should be
turned in next week.
 Telling people about taking the bus to the Capitol on Wednesday for the
Higher Education Rally because attendance is very important.
SGA SENATE COMMITTEE REPORTS CONTINUED:
Judiciary Committee – Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Chair; Austin Wendt, Co-Chair
Present:
Senators Lawrence Arceneaux, III,
Jessica Fradella, Meah Johnson,
Mistretta.
Yaye Ba, Peyton Chiasson,
Markos Picou and Kaitlyn
Absent:
Senators
Austin
Wendt,
Trey
Clark,
Micah
Thibodeaux, Emily Sauce and Charles Johns.
Hebert,
Tommy
We went over three absentee forms and excused all of them.
Meet the SGA/Social Events: Mr/Ms Nicholls/Banquet - Homecoming/Christmas) –
Grant Ordoyne, Chair
Present:
Senators Grant Ordoyne, Abigail Ledet, Les Theriot, Austin Wendt
and Taylor Bruce.
Absent:
Senators Peyton Chiasson, Emily Sauce and Tommy Thibodeaux.
We discussed the following:
 Student Orientation going on this week and the Higher Education Rally.
Senators are encouraged to post about the Rally on social media since
we did reserve a bus.
 The Women’s Tennis game on Sunday and that we’re going to hand out the
rest of the “Beat Southeastern” shirts.
 The SGA banquet and the menu.
Campus Improvements Committee – Peyton Chiasson, Chair; Tommy Thibodeaux, CoChair;
Present:
Senators Peyton Chiasson, Katelyn Cortez, Tiffany Durocher,
Charles Johns, Grant Ordoyne and Taylor Bruce.
Absent:
Senators Tommy Thibodeaux, Jessica Fradella, Abigail Ledet,
Austin Wendt and Kaitlyn Mistretta.
We discussed the following:
 We went over Mike Davis’ report of the cost estimate to purchase light
bulbs and other related electrical devices to repair the lights in the
Bowie Road Parking lot and the Ellender Library Parking lot.
 The possibility of having a permanent “What’s the Frustration” box
outside of Polk Hall facing the Quad.
 The committee went into the Ballroom to talk to new students about how
they like Nicholls.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
S1415-072a
I move to take the motion to increase the Senator Projects Spring budget off
the table.
1. Lawrence Arceneaux, III
2. Peyton Chiasson
Move into vote
Passed For-17
Against-0
Abstained-0
S1415-072
I move to increase the budgeted amount of the Spring 2015 Senator Projects
line item of the budget from $15,000 to $21,000.
The money will come from
unallocated funds.
1. Tiffany Durocher
2. Austin Wendt
Discussion: Senator Tiffany D. said since we will be passing more motions in
the next couple of weeks, we need to add to the Senator Projects line item of
the budget.
Question: Move into vote
Passed For 17
Against-0
Abstained-0
NEW BUSINESS
None.
UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE REPORTS
None.
DISCUSSION PERIOD:
None.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Carolanne M.
Delta Zeta is having a Take Back Night tonight at Rotollo’s
Pizzeria.
Lillie B.
As President-Elect, applications for Executive Board
open so if you’re interested, please apply in the
office.
Mary S.
Committee Chair applications will be taken at the beginning
of Fall semester.
There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 5:20 p.m.
are
SGA