Memoriam: Former University AgCenter agent remembered, p. 4
Standardized Testing: Changes to MCAT exam take effect in 2015, p. 6
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LSU sports: Superfan has a passion for attendance, p. 7
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 • Volume 115, Issue 127
SG officials use student fees to buy parking permits Passes allow access inside Easy Streets, total $1,250 Sydni Dunn Staff Writer
While the average student treks to class from a remote parking lot, four Student Government officials coast to the University
grounds each day and are granted access to the heart of campus. The student leaders are equipped with specialized parking permits, totaling $1,250, which is paid for with student fees. According to Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, SG is offered five parking permits each year, separated into “C” and “B” zones. They are the only students offered the permits, Graham said.
The permits are offered to the president, vice president, Senate speaker, speaker pro tempore and University Court chief justice. All accepted the passes last year with the exception of Chief Justice Danielle Rushing. “The president is granted a ‘C’ pass, which allows total access to the campus,” Graham said. “The ‘B’ pass allows them just within the Easy Streets.” Graham said the permits are renewed each August and charged to SG. He said “C”
permits cost $500 and “B” permits cost $250. Because SG does not have an account set up to pay for these permits, the passes are purchased from the officials’ contingency funds, which come entirely from student fees. “I believe the students’ money has been put to good use,” SG President J Hudson said. “The parking permit gives me access to what I’m supposed to be doing.” PERMITS, see page15
Lawsuit challenging Regents thrown out Sydni Dunn Staff Writer
ADAM VACCARELLA / The Daily Reveille
Mechanical engineering senior Rachel Yates, member of the “Walk Again” project, works at a lathe machine April 5 shaping rods for the exoskeleton in the Engineering Shops.
Students design exoskeleton for quadriplegic Device will allow injured man to walk Meredith Will Contributing Writer
Sloan Deumite didn’t think he would ever walk again after breaking his neck at 17 in a boating accident. Deumite became a quadriplegic, a person paralyzed in all four limbs. Now 40, he has hope — a group of University engineering seniors are designing and constructing an exoskeleton for their senior
design project, titled “Walk Again.” “Walk Again” is a collaborative project with seven mechanical, two electrical and one computer engineering senior, said Patrick Vocke, a mechanical engineering senior working on the project. The members of the group are mechanical engineering seniors David Bray, Steven Cobb, Blake Conzelmann, Mark Korinek, Evan Ledet, Vocke and Rachel Yates; electrical engineering seniors Brittany Culotta and William LaFleur; and computer science engineering senior Patrick Sibley. Deumite’s father, Norman Deumite, suggested the project to
the College of Engineering and is the sole sponsor. Yates said exoskeletons exist for paraplegics, people paralyzed in their lower body, but not for quadriplegics because they have trouble balancing. Norman Deumite said he believed a group of students could construct a new type of exoskeleton for quadriplegics by combining a gyroscopic balance system with the current type of exoskeleton designed for paraplegics. “It’s a very sophisticated project,” he said. “I’m very impressed with the work the students have done.”
Deumite said he set aside about $35,000 for the project but is not sure how much the team has used. He said he graduated from the University in mechanical engineering in 1958 and has participated on boards, donated and sponsored projects at LSU. “I just do whatever I can for LSU,” he said. Deumite said Sloan is excited about the project. He said Sloan can stand and walk a few hundred yards with a heavy-duty walker, but the new exoskeleton could greatly improve EXOSKELETON, see page 15
Judge Timothy Kelley of the 19th Judicial District Court has thrown out the lawsuit filed against Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Louisiana Board of Regents that challenged the Board’s composition, according to the Associated Press. The suit, filed on Feb. 14 on behalf of seven Southern University students by former Congressman Cleo Fields, said the Board’s composition was unconstitutional as it had no racial minority members. It argued all racial minorities were replaced in December when Jindal announced his new appointments, resulting in an all-white Board. Kelley denied the injunction Feb. 24 at the initial hearing. Following the verdict, Fields and the students announced they would file an appeal. A minority member, Albert Sam II, was added to the Board on March 9 following the resignation of long-time Board member Roland Toups on March 7. Kelley ruled Tuesday the governor’s appointments to the Board are legal, even if they were “politically ill-advised and damaging.” A resolution to “make mandatory the provision for diversity in board appointments” will be presented and voted upon during the regular legislative session. Contact Sydni Dunn at sdunn@lsureveille.com