In a last-minute meeting held by the Student Government Association on Thursday, the group decided on a resolution regarding the University’s policy of student representation. 

Following last weekend’s unauthorized and politically-charged chalkings on campus by the College Republicans at Nicholls State University, Graduate Senator Tyler Legnon announced a vote for the University to accept this resolution. 

Legnon explained that this resolution was placed forward by the SGA to inform students of the fact that they recognize certain rules and policies in the University must be followed. If they are not, certain repercussions are to be expected. 

In turn, Legnon encouraged all students to continue to follow these set rules. He also called for the University, as well as the US system to recognize that these different rules and policies were set in place for a reason.

SGA President Ethan Naquin addressed these ideas by stating that this resolution is a solid area in reminding our student body of the different codes and rules to which we are all accustomed. 

“Of course, as a student government we hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Naquin said. 

SGA Senate Member Heather LeBouef also expressed her support for this motion, stating that if one is in a position where they should be viewed as a role model, one should be upholding this impression at all times, not just to obtain a certain position.

With only one abstention, the association decided to pass this motion. 

Additional motions were introduced and decided upon in this same meeting. 

Following the decision made on this resolution, the association also discussed the amending of articles four, seven, and eight of their Constitution. These amendments require a majority vote from the student body.

“It goes as far as basically specifying that our decisions are included as a SGA held position, that doesn’t just apply to the board members. And, as across the board, honorary positions are positions that will be held to the same standards as everybody else,” Legnon said. 

Naquin added to this by re-stating the fact that honoring positions are subject to oversight by the Student Government Association in the future. 

“This process of transferring over all honorary positions to the SGA after the selection has pretty much been pretty standard over the years. But, there’s no way for the Student Government Association to impose any sort of consequences or any real action for the students that are selected by the student body to serve in those positions,” Naquin said. 

Additionally, it was detailed that amendment five will create five new center positions for providing more support. This will allow the minority student organizations at Nicholls to have some portion of the Senate, where their individual voices will also be heard. 

Naquin stated that this practice of incorporating center positions was adopted from the constitution of New York University. 

LeBouef expressed her support for this decision, stating that students will not have to worry about whether or not, in the SGA Senate, they have a member that is fully supportive of them. 

“We have someone who specifically represents the black community, specifically represents the LGTBQ community. And, I think that’s just so important when it comes to people who are wondering if they are being represented well,” LeBouef said. 

This motion was also passed, with a majority of the association in favor. 

The next bill suggested that the SGA Senate allocate $7,434 to the Department of English, modern language and cultural studies, for overdue upgrades to technology in Peltier 230. 

The plan presented in the meeting was to purchase a projection system and technology upgrades for Peltier 230, which is currently non-existent in the room. In turn, this was described as challenging the Department of English’s efficiency in presenting the different courses. 

This bill would allocate the remainder of the Peltier Hall’s initiative line item to the Department of English. Though the initial quote said that $12,000 would be given away, it was announced in this meeting that only some $400 of this bill would be spared. 

The rest of the costs would be covered from funding that Nicholls received from The Cares Act that was passed by Congress back in April. 

This was challenged by the idea that The English Department would not be the sole Department among the Nicholls campus benefiting from this addition. Other courses from different subjects would also be held in this room. 

With this, the motion was then tabled. 

Another bill that was presented was the suggestion to rebuild and renovate Geaux Hall. President Naquin explained that Geaux Hall is the only building on campus within the 25 year master plan for a complete demolition and rebuilding. 

“There’s a number of issues with the hall. There’s been a number of exterminator visits bouncing the water table via hosepipe,” Naquin proceeded to explain a number of issues with the building. 

According to Naquin, there’s also been a large amount of synching within the building, to the point where a number of the classrooms are no longer capable of being locked, due to how the sinkage of the building has contoured the layout. 

Naquin explained that this resolution was also being sent to administrators at the state level to encourage them to begin the capital outlay process. 

This motion was passed. 

Two bylaws were then discussed, as these bills exceeded the thousand-dollar margin. The first was a request to allocate up to $5,000 for reparation to the sidewalk at the Student Union. Most of this will come from the Infrastructure Campus Safety line of the budget. 

This motion was tabled. 

Legnon summarized the second bill with the idea that the SGA senate wishes to allocate $41,000 to the purchase of one bench for the upstairs outdoor corridor in Peltier hall. 

As both benches are typically never used at the same time, the stated plan is to remove both wooden benches, and replace them with one metal bench to modernize the corridor. 

This motion was agreed to be tabled, as well. 

A number of additional motions were discussed, following these two bills. 

Some examples include adding a green space outside Peltier, which was tabled, Election day becoming a university holiday, which was passed, overtime for Ellender library employees on November 10, 17, 18 and 19, so the library can be open for two additional hours, which was passed and a number of reparations to the suites, which was tabled.