Volume 65 - Issue 13
@southerndigest.com
November 24, 2015
Wake up call: Small blaze in Jones Hall BY XAVIER CLARK
DIGEST STAFF WRITER
SU residents of Jones Hall were forced to evacuate the dorm, due to a fire on November 16 around 2 a.m. The fire was caused by a student’s laptop that had gotten to hot and ignited the bedding of an unknown student. “The flames reached the sprinkler head and it busted,” said SU Fire Safety Coordinator Courtland Jackson. “It was soaking wet, everything was wet, and it was smoky but we had workers in place that were pulling everything out,” said Jackson. Jackson also mentioned that there were large amounts of damage done to the dormitory. Currently Jones Hall is undergoing repairs, but is in a livable condition. Freshman Criminal Justice major, Marques White of Ferriday, stated that everyone was able to evacuate safely. “I was just glad that everyone got out and nobody was hurt.” “The whole incident was a huge accident,” said Tevon Gros, a freshman Mechanical Engineering major from Vasherie, “but I was upset, it broke my sleep and I had an 8 o’clock class that morning,” finished Gros.
BATTLE ON THE BAYOU This Saturday November 28, 2015 Southern Jaguars VS. Grambling Tigers
Mercedes-Benz Superdome 4PM New Orleans, LA
Kayla Foster/DIGEST Students gather in the Smith-Brown Memorial union to voice concerns to Student Government Association officials during Senate meeting held on November 17.
SENATE MEETING: Questions answered BY KAYLA FOSTER DIGEST STAFF WRITER
Southern University’s Student Government Association (SGA) held their senate meeting in the Smith-Brown Memorial union on last Tuesday. During the meeting there were several questions and concerns from the student body, who wanted answers from their elected class officials, including the SGA President and Vice President. SGA President Dominique Diamond began by answering questions in regards to his successes along with his platform, which included working with the SU Honors college to get tutors for students that need help in certain subjects, holding SGA accountable for making sure the student leaders are doing their jobs, and giving away four presidential scholarships; an upcoming leadership seminar and workshop held by campus leaders. Senior, Education major Jerlisa Robinson, of New Orleans said that the student leaders did a good job in answering the questions, which were asked by students. “I think it went really great. All the questions that the students had they gave input. They didn’t seem to stumble or just
make up an answers. It was very straight forward,” finished Robinson. With several occasions of canceled events, or last minute notification the students prosed questions, and received answers that were pleasing such as there will be more improvements, as far as getting more organized and reaching out to the students in orders to communicate more effectively, and be aware of the student needs and wants. The 20/20 committee takes the use of senate power hour, dorm raids and surveys to effectively communicate with the students, and hear their concerns and needs, in order to bridge the gap between administration and the student body. With the upcoming final exam period the executive cabin is providing encouragement for students, by partnering with the honors college, to host late night study sessions, supplies, and late night breakfasts. Students were also invited and welcomed to come out and receive help, and support. Sophomore Class President Armond Dunkin of Alexandria said he felt the meeting made some good accomplishments. “I think the meeting was a success as far as getting a sense of accountability
and what the students concerns on what could be a lot better in the sense of getting students to attend the meetings. Its good to know we can have this type of interaction and more questions answered,” said Dunkin. I think that given the questions and this being a vital experience for some of us, we can better serve the students and can normally push for more events like this. We can better the university,” finished Duncan. Before ending the meeting SGA leaders encouraged students to continue to voice their opinions as well as participate in future senate meetings. Diamond commented on the success of the meeting. “I think the senate meeting went really well. I would like to see more students come out and voice their opinion.” When asked of the upcoming spring semester Diamond stated, “I think next semester is going to be great, knowing what the students expect from us as leaders of the university. So I think this gives us the time over winter break to plan and get together so we can plan so we come at full force getting the students involved and what they expect out of us,” finished Diamond.
THE OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY AND A&M COLLEGE, BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA