Initiatives

The following initiatives are for the 2007-2008 Student Government administration. Initiatives with a § symbol next to them have been accomplished thus far.

Academics:
•     Make Student Government College Councils More accountable and accessible
•     Streamline the basic education requirements for each individual college
•     Increase both number and variety of classes offered
•     Represent students’ interests in the UCAC and UCFY merger
§    Provide cheaper options for textbooks, by offering electronic textbooks (Currently offered in LSU bookstore)
•     Online textbook exchange
•     Represent student interests in the transition to a new CMS
•     Help implement a new scheduling planning system
•     Evaluate computer based testing policies and procedures
§    Establish a better degree audit
•     Examine policies of procedures of “W” policy
•     Strengthen Provost Council and follow up on previous Provost Council Initiatives
•     Establish an Academic Week, including an increase in midterm & finals week resources
§    Provide free scantrons and blue books

Athletics:
•     Encourage the transition of paper student football tickets to tiger cards (The current ticket system was improved and an evaluation will be carried out to determine the ticketing for next year)
§    Fight any proposed increases in student ticket prices (As long as the percentage of student attendance is greater or equal to the overall stadium attendance, there will be no increase in student ticket prices)
§    Facilitate exchange of student tickets (Students were allowed to exchange student tickets freely between other students. The name requirement was removed at the gate.)
§    Convert student fee funded bus trip to a self-funded Tiger Trips program (We successfully sent trips to 3 Away games for over a hundred students at less than 1/5 of the cost. No student fees were used to fund the bus trip. We look to expand and improve the trips for next year.)
§    Promote PJ Game
•     Have Athletic administrators talk to LSU Student Senate
§    Install more water fountains in Tiger Stadium Student Section
§    Evaluate other SEC school ticketing systems
•     Work to perfect priority point allocation
•     Plan Mardi Gras Mambo
•     Establish rivalry trophy between LSU and Ole Miss game
§    More Priority Points Options
•     Advertise the Commemorative tickets
§    Provide Free Ticket Printing at all Home Games
§    Ease congestion at Student Gate during home games

Community:
•     Increase visibility and effectiveness of campus diversity panels
•     Bring local leaders to campus for conversations with students (The risk symposium provided guest speakers from around the country in varying fields)
•     Streamline the broadcast email system
§    Improve Campus Lighting (Currently outlawed incandescent bulbs on campus and have worked to transition some campus lights to LEDs. Also implemented a campus lighting walk in the fall and will do another one in the spring.)
§    Develop an emergency plan for the campus (Worked with the campus emergency team and LSUPD to increase campus safety. Have implemented an emergency text messaging system and given students 400 free text messages to allow them to receive emergency texts. We are currently working towards a voice mail callout system to alert LSU students of emergencies. We  have also set up a volunteer coordinator team to be deployed in the case of hurricane emergencies and other major disasters.)

•     Lake Clean-Up
•     Work to bring local leaders to campus to debate important campus issues
•     Raise awareness through table sits
•     Promote initiatives such as: Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD), Clean up Baton Rouge, and Feed the Hungry for Thanksgiving.
§    Increase participation in Student Government service projects
§    Plan Diversity Awareness Week
•     Initiate a Fee Campaign to educate the campus on student fees
§   Promote the Constitution Day Celebration
•     Organize Your Class, Your Voice
•     Work with campus officials to develop Campus Movie Theater
•     Organize candle light vigil to honor the fallen members of the VT community
•     Represent student perspective in Student Code of Conduct Revisions

Programming:
§    Continue the growth of Student Government-led community service projects (Organized a New Orleans clean up with Southern. )(Are currently working to do another joint service project in conjunction with Southern and the Mayor’s Office.)
•     Finals Week in the Union/Library
•     Provide Chats with the Chancellor, Vice Provost, Dean of Students, Les Miles, and Skip Bertman
§    Increase participation in Battle of the Bands
•     Reform Grovin’ on the Grounds into a Music Festival atmosphere
•     Bring in larger named performers into campus that reach a broader audience
§    Re-establish the Pep-Rally
§    LSU/SU/BRCC Service Projects
•     Increase effectiveness and reach of Louisiana Week
§    Revamp Student Action Team (Freshman Leadership Council) to be a more interactive, hands on functional body for freshmen.
•     Establish Job Shadowing for FLC
•     Have FLC propose and implement an initiative that will affect the entire university
•     Work with FLC to plan and facilitate service projects and school events
•     Bring top campus officials to discuss issues with FLC
§    Have FLC work to provide input on major campus issues
§    Increase participation in FLC
§    Increase sponsorship fund to support initiatives and programming

Communications:
§    Introduce a 24-hour response system for student inquiries (Currently in progress and have dealt with thousands of inquiries)
§    Commence frequent discussions between SG, administration (Chats with the Chancellor and Chats with the Coaches were huge successes during this year)
§    Keep SG website up to date (The website has been up to date with campus information and issues)
§    Design and maintain Travelin’ Tigers Website (Successfully maintained and Developed a website for the Travelin’ Tigers program…over 50 students used this as a way to sign up for the 3 bus trips)
•     Post all required fees and Student Government expenditures online
•     Institute more avenues for students to provide input
•     Meet with many student organizations to raise awareness of student concerns
•     Create weekly blogs to inform students on Student Government’s progress
§    Put out Bi-Annual newsletter within Student Government
§    Post progress of initiatives online
§    Design New SG website
•     Create Traditions Council
§    Facilitate Fall Fest T-Shirt design competition
Safety:
§    Establish emergency text messaging system
•     Establish emergency voice mail callout system
§     Coordinate volunteer emergency plan
§    Host forum on Gun control
•     Implement a state of the art GIS emergency mapping system for campus safety (We are currently working on finalizing the plans for the implementation of the new GIS campus map. This was an initiative started by the Gieg Downs administration and was implemented by ours.)

Technology:
§    Provide cheaper options for textbooks, by offering electronic textbooks (Currently offered in LSU bookstore)
§    Develop a free annual printing quota for students ($5 will be allotted to every student that pays tech fees during the Spring Semester and $2.5 will be given to every student that pays tech fees during intersession)
§    Explore alternate locations for extended-hour computing (24 hour computing will be offered in the new student organizational complex)
§    Make laptop rental more student-friendly (New laptops for rentals were purchased during the Fall STF meeting)
•     Encourage all academic staff to post course materials and assignments online
§    Allow students to use computer lab printers through campus wireless internet access (Currently implemented and revamped for easy usage)
•     Use PAWS to provide better avenues for input and communication
•     Transition student mail provider to a more reliable, free service
§    Provide free music to all LSU students and faculty
•     Integrate new campus map into IT infrastructure
§    Remove Discipline Specific Proposals to free up funding within STFC
§    Have clickers available for checkout in the Library
§    Put Apple computers in the Union and Patrick Taylor
Transportation:
§    Help expand Golden Bikes Program
•     Explore options for different busing contracts
§    Improve accountability within CATS
§    Establish new routes around the Greek Housing
•     Provide bike pumps and more racks around campus
•     Increase parking space around Dorms and Greek Housing