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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Inside almost 2,000 miles from home by choice
News campus briefs page 2 board holds to oversight in campus matters Oversized classes: budget cut effects or something else? nse provides opportunity
Culture Black History Facts
Columns Let’s talk politics: black males & homicide
Commentary college choices you owe sallie mae regardless are you the hammer or the nail?
Photos of the week
protesters on valentine’s day, conflict at SU BOS meeting, su goes red, and just in the nick of time... no campus atm services
www.southerndigest.com
Volume 60, Issue 4
Board holds to duties, obligations Evan Taylor
The Southern Digest A dark cloud of distrust, concern and controversy hung over the Southern University Board of Supervisors, Friday at the February board meeting. Language, power, law and policy remained themes of address from line item to line item among the board agendas. Board members debated the language and law for Southern University System individuals’ car and housing policies, reaffirmation of authority, SUNO food contract negotiations and mid-year cuts. The discussion began in the Finance and Audit committee as Calvin Braxton, Sr., SUS board member wanted a report from board counsel regarding housing/ automobile allowances for SU system president and chancellors. Braxton showed concerns of whether the policy was being followed and whether the counsel was aware of any laws being broken in the state. “This arose when Mr. Braxton asked me some background questions, I explained some university heads receive courtesy cars… those who receive courtesy cars would not be issued a vehicle allowance,” Winston Decuir, general counsel said. Braxton questioned if any campus got both with campus budget reduction in mind. “The reason why I asked this question, was because I own a business, you’re not going to ever stop spending money… I’m just trying to figure out a way to stop spending money,” Braxton said. The conversation continued on until they reached the decision to consider the numbers and policies and look for the weaknesses and places to save funds. Chancellor Victor Ukpolo
Evan Taylor/DIGEST Endas Vincent, Director of Facilities Planning for Southern University system brought good news to the SU Board of Supervisors announcing the projects underway without delay, Friday. engaged in a debate as well concerning the language of a “delegation of authority” and the approval of the board for a debt consolidation for Southern University at New Orleans. Ukpolo requested the board vote on the language according to documentation submitted to the board, “The Chancellor shall have the authority to execute grant related agreements.” The vote passed to accept the delegation for the purposes of grant agreements with the National Science Foundation. Ukpolo also presented a resolution to authorize the Southern University of New Orleans Student and Faculty and housing loan modification agreement.
“This is an item that I am seeking approval from the board to allow the chair of the board, the president of the system and myself to execute loan documentation that may be coming to us in an amount of days from Washington that will allow us to modify the 44 million dollar loan used for Southern University New Orleans housing,” Ukpolo said. He was quickly met with questions and concerns of how the loan would be paid off and speculation on the net savings. SU System President Ronald Mason stepped in to give more insight, criticized by Tony Clayton; asking for the terms of the proposed agreement. “Are we giving him the authority in a vacuum to sign this agreement? If he gets a lower interest rate I’m
all for it. But if that document has a lot of backend cost on it… I want to know what is the bottom line savings. I want to know just like Mr. Braxton wants to know what will be the terms of this new agreement,” Clayton said. Clayton continued saying it was the board’s obligation to consider before signing off. “I believe we have the fiduciary obligation before we vote to give him an authority in a vacuum to go sign off on a document,” Clayton said. The decision was made to follow the intent of the modification in which the documentation must be brought to the chair and system president before the agreement is signed. The motion passed, and SUNO’s agreement with Sodexo was the next concern addressed by Braxton. He questioned the lack of a bidding process for the six-month extension of Sodexo’s food service contract at SUNO. The confusion arose as it was revealed two campuses food service contracts expire in six months (June) while Aramark’s contract with SUBR expires in six years. The System office is working on a contract for food service for the system to be ready in June. In the interest of time, the bid discussion was tabled until the board’s March 22 meeting. In less controversy and in positive manner, Endas Vincent updated the board on the projects underway. According to Vincent, Demolition of four dorms to start construction in April, the baseball support facility bidding will happen at the end of February and the intramural complex is scheduled for completion in July.
See Board Executes page 3
Oversized classes cause issues, concerns Jessica Sarpy
The Southern Digest Students are faced with larger class sizes and see the difference in learning with a larger student to faculty ratio in the English department and other classes. This semester the large class sizes have created issues for students in their learning environments. The recent ‘overloaded’ classrooms have caused students to borrow seats from other classrooms and set their class routine off for weeks. Jah’Narri Ramsey, a freshman nursing student from Pearlriver La. said, “The first couple of weeks were crazy because we were all in one composition class.”
Ramsey described the class. “It was like 100 of us and half of us couldn’t come to class because there wasn’t anyplace to sit. We’d have to interrupt other classes to borrow desks,” Ramsey said. The English department currently has 22 English 110 classes and 25 English 111 freshman composition classes. “Once we finally got our new instructor like two weeks after school started, she came to three classes then stopped,” Ramsey said. She was informed the university had not paid the professor. “We were told it was because the university didn’t pay her yet,” Ramsey said. Freshman composition wasn’t the only class, that is faced with one
teacher to more than one hundred students. Introduction to Logic and Introduction to Philosophy has 150 registered students in each class. Jeremy Perry, a senior mass communications major is a student in one of the classes, said, “Sometimes I wish it were smaller. At first I felt a little overwhelmed with the number of students in that class.” Perry said the ration has become a problem and has changed his way of preparing for the class and retaining information. “The number of students makes it hard to hear the professor so I depend heavily on the book,” Perry said. When asked about the recent class increase situation Brandon Dumas
the official student newspaper of southern university and A&m college, baton rouge, louisiana
Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, refused to comment and deferred to Albert Tezeno Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Success. Tezeno said he would refer students with concerns to Ella Kelly, Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and VerJanis Peoples, Provost. Kelly deferred to Peoples who was unavailable for comment in lieu of deadline for this article. This article is the first in a series to pinpoint the causes of oversized classes, a possible shortage in professors, economic issues in teacher compensation and the proper protocol in which the offices on campus coincide to address these concerns of students and student outcomes.