Submitted, once again, is The Nicholls Worth’s semesterly list of cheers and jeers for the happenings on campus. This list comes to you after much thought and consideration by The Nicholls Worth Editorial Board. We pride ourselves on being your source of on-campus news. We are now using this space as our chance to comment on what went well and what when terribly wrong. Cheers to the student body for its responsible behavior at Westboro Baptist Church’s protest of the newly formed Nicholls Gay/Straight Alliance. Although administrators urged students to avoid the protest, hundreds of students attended the protest to show their support of free speech and their dislike of WBC’s public speech. Signs reading “God hates crawfish” along with chants of “over rated” and “go home” by the students clearly conveyed their feelings toward the visitors from Kansas.

Cheers to Greg Evans, director of the Student Union, and all others responsible for the bright colors that can now be seen throughout the Student Union. Also, cheers for fixing the peeling paint before it got any worse. We did not want to lose the new colors so soon.

Cheers to University representatives for handling the academic fraud scandal professionally and saving what face the University has. But we must include a jeer within a cheer because we should never have to call on our University officials to defend themselves in such a situation, based on the actions of a few. Also, the athletic department has appeared to decline since seven head coaches left the program in the past year.

And on that note, cheers to the administration for making the services of turnitin.com available to Nicholls’ professors. After the academic fraud scandal, the University must take any actions possible to re-establish faith in its academic integrity.

Cheers to the parking committee for finally listening to the students’ complaints and taking the first steps at constructing a new 300-space student parking lot.

Cheers to those students who ran for Student Government Association president and vice president. This was the first time in years we have been able to choose these positions through an actual election with debates and campaigning. We must jeer the lack of students voting. Only about 600 people voted, even with the added convenience of online elections.

Cheers to the women’s basketball team for making the Southland Conference tournament for the first time since 2001.

Jeers to the University and Lapham/Miller, the consulting firm hired to re-brand Nicholls, for their lack of student input and taking so long to deliver a new identity.

Jeers to the SGA for their lack of action in the ongoing debate on banning smoking at all school entrances.

Jeers to the University of Louisiana System for increasing the cost of tuition by 3 percent, causing students to pay a total of $48 more for the spring and fall semesters. This raises Nicholls’ tuition to $1,688.95 per semester.

Jeers to all students involved in the altercations following the step show. A long criminal investigation followed and several arrests were made. This is the third year that the step show and the public image of Nicholls has been marred by the actions of idiotic students. It is time to stop the foolishness.

Jeers to the administration for not making Election Day a school holiday. They are sending a message to the students that voting does not take priority over other responsibilities. It does.

Jeers to students for not using the new lounge in Powell-White Hall. Take a break. Buy some orange juice or coffee and rest on the new couches.