Colleges from the University of Louisiana System gathered at the Louisiana State Capitol on Monday, April 11 to celebrate the state’s largest higher education system and help show legislators the value of higher education.
The UL System is the largest higher education system in the state, and enrolls approximately 90,000 students at Grambling State University, Louisiana Tech University, McNeese State University, Nicholls State University, Northwestern State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the University of Louisiana at Monroe and the University of New Orleans.
According to Nicholls’ department of university marketing and communications director Stephanie Verdin, the event was designed to highlight of the system and encourage Louisiana’s leaders to make higher education a priority.
“It started a few years ago as a way for the universities to come together to let our legislators know the value of our universities and some of the projects that we’re up to,” Verdin said.
Every university had a table in Memorial hall, the lobby area between the House and Senate chambers, so legislators and staff on their way to committee meetings or into session were able to meet with the Nicholls Student Government Association students staffing the table.
“Nicholls was one of the only, if not the only school to bring students,” Verdin said. “When we met to discuss our strategy for this day, including some students was a major factor. What we know is, legislators are more apt to talk to students than they are administrators at these kinds of events.”
Verdin said it was very powerful to have students there so that legislators could hear students’ concerns first hand.
“A lot of times (legislators) are just curious about what students’ majors are and how their college experience is going,” Verdin said. “I think for almost all of them, it was their first time at the state capitol and so I think it was a good experience, especially with all the issues that are being discussed in this regular session, particularly TOPS. TOPS is going to be an issue until the end of legislative session, so I think it was good for those SGA leaders to really see how the process works.”
Students spoke with many legislators including Sen. Norby Chabert , Sen. Bret Allain, Rep. Beryl Amedee and Rep. Dee Richard who introduced the students on the house floor.
Peyton Chiasson, the SGA director of student’s rights and grievances and a sophomore from Chackbay, said it was his first time participating in UL System Day.
“We talked to them a lot about our budget and retention,” Chiasson said. “We were there promoting Nicholls as a whole, it’s really good publicity for us. They know we’re here to stay and how hard we’re working to stay here and a lot of them thanked us for being there.”
At their table, students had cards highlighting some of Nicholls’ recent accomplishments like Colonel Catholics being nationally ranked, marketing seniors competing in national college sales competitions and a biology student who was selected to present his research in Washington, D.C.
“We really wanted to show that despite the budget challenges, we really have great things going on here on campus,” Verdin said. “At the same time, we did have a card that talked a little bit about some of the things that haven’t happened because of the budget challenges.”
Verdin said they also wanted to show some of the repercussions of the budget cuts that might not be obvious by just visiting the campus such as maintenance to buildings.
Besides handing out information about Nicholls’ success and problem areas, Verdin said they also had sweets available from the culinary department to encourage legislators to stop by their table.
“It gives us an opportunity to talk about some of the great things we have going on here,” Verdin said. “I mean people bring treats, but we have a big advantage because they’re not your average cookies. Nothing that comes out of culinary is average, right? So it gives us an advantage to talk to people. We’re not just handing people a goodie, we’re also talking to people about what’s going on in our culinary program.”