SGA to fund landscaping for Peltier Garden

The Student Government Association passed a motion at its meeting yesterday to fund the landscaping of Peltier Garden as part of an ongoing restoration project.

The motion will allow for SGA to allocate $4,544 toward the landscaping efforts.

Drake Thibodaux, senator for the college of arts and sciences, said that this is the third step in the Peltier Garden project that he has been working on since his freshman year.

“The first part of it was taking out the deck and all the rotting trees and everything, and the second part was putting tables in there,” Thibodaux said. “This is going to be the third part–landscaping it and making it look beautiful again.”

Thibodaux said that he took over the project after finding out that SGA had been working on it for years, but no one was able to finish it.

“There were complaints that people were sitting on the deck and getting bitten by some random bugs and getting splinters and whatnot… so my freshman year I went ahead and I went far enough to where we took the deck out,” Thibodaux said.

With the University of Louisiana System Day at the Capitol set to take place on Wednesday, President Tommy Thibodeaux discussed several TOPS-related bills that are currently in committees.

HB161 would allow students to pay back TOPS if they were to lose it, said Thibodeaux. HB414 would raise the grade point average required for TOPS, while HB413 would allow students to attend a two-year school, transfer to a four-year university and receive TOPS for their last two years of college. Thibodeaux encouraged students to make their voices heard by attending ULS Day and contacting Louisiana legislators.

“The biggest thing that you need to do as a…student in Louisiana for higher education is to be present–is to have your voice known,” said Thibodeaux. “[Contact] your legislators. Contact them on Twitter. A lot of them are actually on Twitter.”

Additionally, Martha Cazaubon, a representative from the South Central Planning and Development Commission, was present to discuss a potential carpooling system in the region.

SGA’s next Scantron giveaway will take place on April 23 from 11 p.m. to 1 p.m.