Clune discusses TOPS and campus changes at SGA meeting

President Jay Clune addressed campus changes and updates at the Student Government Association’s Monday night meeting.

Clune said that in Gov. John Bel Edwards recent budget, Edwards proposed cutting TOPS by 80 percent; however, Clune said that this will not be an issue.

“Budgets are political. The attempt was to send a message that we need to deal with this now,” said Clune.

Clune said that the proposed cuts also laid out the plans for a $26 million budget cut to university and college appropriations.

“We estimate for us it will be less than $1 million,” said Clune.

There will also be changes to Nicholls’ staff, said Clune. For instance, Michele Caruso will serve as dean of students. Positions in the counseling center and Greek life are also among the changes. The counseling center will experience changes in funding. The director of housing search has been called off.

Alex Arceneaux will transition from chief of staff to executive vice president.

“I’m also going to collapse two administrative positions into one, so chief of staff and the vacant executive vice president for advancement will be collapsed into one,” said Clune.

The Nicholls State University website will also undergo changes, as there have been recent hires within the marketing and communications department.

Nicholls is also looking into annual staff pay raises.

“I am committed to developing compensation plans to address faculty and staff. We pay less than most universities in the system. We pay wages that do not demonstrate the value to which we hold our faculty and staff. So we’re going to start a plan to address annual raises for faculty and staff,” said Clune.

The library is on the list of renovations that Clune would like to see done on campus. He said that the library needs to be a center of technology.

Clune said he would also like students to have access to free textbooks. He proposed that one copy of each general education requirement textbook should be located at the library reserve desk for students to check out. Clune said he wants “to limit textbook costs for students.”

At the SGA meeting, motions were also passed to purchase a melting point device for the physical science department, models of the skeletal and muscular systems for the tutoring center and an LCD 10-point touch screen monitor and two styluses for the tutoring center.

SGA will be hold scantron giveaways on Feb. 5, Mar. 5, Apr. 23 and May 7.