At last night’s meeting, the Student Government Association allocated $3,200 towards the purchase of four Dell Pentium III computers for its executive offices.Vice president Brent Callais spoke on the need for new computers.
“Mine is completely broken, Scott’s [Duplantis, president] doesn’t work, Katie’s [Naquin, treasurer] doesn’t log on to the network and Nicole [Perero, director of students’ rights and grievances] has the only functioning computer,” Callais said.
No executive board member can check his e-mail.
“Mrs. Elaine has to get all our e-mail for us, copy it for us, put it in our boxes,” Callais said.
“This motion has been written for [about] two months, but we decided to hold it off for the last two meetings so every other organization can come to us for money.”
In other business, the senate accepted the hiring of Christine Russell, attorney-at-law, as legal adviser for students.
A self-assessed fee totaling $2,900, not the SGA budget, funded the hiring, which was recommended “without reservation” by Danny Cavell, the previous adviser.
Cavell said he had to relinquish the position because his schedule became too constrained, but spoke of his long history with the SGA.
“I served as a senator about 26 years ago. Twenty-five years ago, I was in Mr. Callais’ position, leaving as vice-president and assuming the role as president,” he said.
“Your elegant speaker Friday night, the honorable Judge John Weimer, preceded me in the position, and he was the one who came up with the idea of a legal adviser for the students.”
Cavell said Weimer, the first two-term SGA president, made all the arrangements for the hiring during his second term as president.
This allowed Cavell, as president, to hire the first adviser.
In other business, the senate allocated $1,000 to go towards the construction of the part of the Bayou Lafourche Linear Park Extension Walking Trail which will pass through campus.
The funds come from the campus improvements budget.
Earlier in the meeting, Alcie Maxwell, arts and sciences senator and chair of the campus improvements committee, addressed the concern about the large “chunk” of money remaining in the campus improvements budget.
“It’s been two semesters, and we haven’t spent anything in awhile. Last semester, we were building up for this semester, and what happened this semester was that we got caught up in a lot of red tape,” Maxwell said.
Jaret Hubbell, education senator, was the only senator who voted against the motion.
Maxwell addressed his concern over Hubbell’s decision.
“Why didn’t you ask a question?” Maxwell asked.
“Because, I understand the motion, I just don’t agree with it,” Hubbell said.
Another motion, successfully moved by Deanna Duet, arts and sciences senator, called for the incorporation of the Code of Ethics into rules and procedures.
“We have accepted the Code of Ethics. We have accepted the rules and procedures. All this is doing is stapling the Code of Ethics to rules and procedures,” Duet said.
Last night’s meeting was the last of the semester and the last for Duplantis to serve in the capacity of president.
“I want to thank y’all each individually one more time. Y’all really made it great for me. We had a lot of fun. As y’all see, we like to laugh and joke in here,” Duplantis said.
Callais, who will take over as president in the summer, said he wanted to see all senators who will be Nicholls students in the fall to return to the senate.
“We need your leadership skills without a doubt. This summer, if you have nothing to do, we will be working hard this summer. So, please stop by the office.”
Hubbell expressed his feelings.
“I might not like everybody here, but I love y’all and I respect y’all. So, have a good one,” he said.
