Jags Safe App Features see News, page 3
Remember Katrina see A&E, page 10
Ready for SWAC Play see Sports, page 5
Exclusive Content: Volume 65 Issue 2
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
www.southerndigest.com
Great Expectations
Southern University Law School First Board meeting of the fall semester addresses key issues makes great strides BY LAQUENCIA PARKER DIGEST MANAGING EDITOR
The Southern University Law Center has been given the opportunity to establish the Hope Zone Legal Clinic in partnership with the Office of Community Development in East Baton Rouge Parish. The clinic will offer residents of the area legal assistance and address issues associated with vacant lots and abandoned properties that have been deemed to be attractors of criminal activity. SULC students, under the supervision of a licensed Louisiana attorney, will staff the Clinic, dealing with issues pertaining to heirship and blighted and adjudicated properties in approximately four interconnected neighborhoods. Through this, SULC and the Office of Community Development hope to improve public health and safety through the reduction and prevention of chronic crime, while also preventing future crime. “I’m very hopeful that the Office of Community Development and SULC will establish a long-term and sustainable relationship to eliminate blight in Baton Rouge,” said Interim Chancellor of SULC John Pierre. Hope Zone Legal Clinic will also help to train residents on how to advocate for neighborhood changes related to code enforcement and nuisance abatement in their neighborhoods. It is anticipated that SULC will receive 44,000 dollars from the East Baton Rouge City-Parish government to establish the clinic, which will take place in 2016. SULC is also working with the Peggy Browning Fund in their Southern Law Schools Collaborative Project. Southern is one of four HBCUs chosen to participate. The others included are: Texas Southern University Law School, North Carolina Central University School of Law and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College of Law. The collaboration between the Law Center and PBF will allow for the creation of experience providing internships for law students throughout the southern United States.
Derylle Spears II/DIGEST
BY LAQUENCIA PARKER DIGEST MANAGING EDITOR
The first Southern University System Board meeting of the Fall 2015 semester took place August 28 on the second floor of the J.S. Clark Administration Building. Among the many discussions that took place among board members, a few of the most prominent include the new endowed professorships of Dr. Revathi Hines, Gkuoqiang Li, Ph. D, and Patrick Mensah, Ph. D. Hines, a professor in the College of Social Behavioral Sciences, along with Li and Mensah, both professors in the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, received 5,000 salary supplements. As endowed professors, they are expected to deliver an annual address to the faculty and public, and furnish the university with annual reports of academic activities and accomplishments undertaken during the period that the professorship is held, amongst other things. Attorney Tony Clayton requested to establish a policy for the number of hours that would determine full time employment for faculty members, as he discussed the salary of an unnamed professor. Clayton argued for the reevaluation of this particular faculty member’s salary, as he teaches only two courses, and receives approximately 180,000 dollars, while maintaining a full-time job at a local law firm. Interim Chancellor of the Southern University Law Center John Pierre explained the situation as one of circumstance, a result of an approval made by former System President Ronald Mason to allot outgoing chancellors 80 percent of their salary. Pierre also noted that he did not want Southern to become a “farm club” for other law schools.
“When you have a law school on your campus, it is an expensive investment,” stated Pierre, who also corrected Clayton’s usage of the word “forced” when referring to faculty members who took participated in the early retirement incentive plan. The plan revolved around the impending budget cuts the Law Center would face, aided by the idea that some tenured faculty members who were considering retirement in the near future would do so at the moment, freeing positions in order to save money. The participants will receive 33 and one third percent of their salaries in installments over the course of three years. The intention is to leave these positions vacant prior to the Fall semester of 2018, with an exception if a position is deemed vital between then and now. “The faculty members who decided to take an early retirement were not forced,” explained Pierre. Another major development in the course of the meeting was the arrival of Southern University at New Orleans Student Government Association President Brian Alexander. Alexander spoke of what he felt to be a “lack of genuine responsiveness to concerns facing the students of SUNO” by the Board. Alexander also alleged that international students were wrongfully awarded scholarships, but did not reveal his sources for fear of retaliation. “When word got out that I would be coming before the board, I received an average of 30 calls within a half-hour from the chancellor and people who work for the chancellor,” stated Alexander. Chancellor Victor Ukpolo had no response. The next board meeting is scheduled for Friday, September 25 on the Baton Rouge campus.
SUPD launches new app Student safety; a top priority BY LAUREN JOHNSON DIGEST EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The Southern University Police Department launched its new safety app, titled Jag Safe, this fall. The newly active app allows students to request safety escorts, report crimes anonymously, and supplies students with emergency information. The app was a joint effort that began in the 2015 spring semester with Police Chief Joycelyn Johnson, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Dr. Brandon K. Dumas, Dean Of Students and Special Assistant to the Vice Chancellor Marcus Coleman and former Student Government
Association President Nicholas Harris, collectively. Students have the ability to submit anonymous reports, in the form of text, video or photo. “If a student knows that they can submit an act of crime and remain anonymous, I’m sure more students would feel secure and more at ease to report crime,” said Johnson. Being the first Historically Black College to partake in the 911 Cellular Company, SU has the ability to take advantage of the newest version of the app,
See JAGS SAFE page 3
THE OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF SOUTHERN UNIVERSIT Y AND A&M COLLEGE, BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA