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Exclusive content @
Friday, October 21, 2011
www.southerndigest.com
Volume 57, Issue 9
SU faculty put artworks on display see News, page 3
Jags picked 1st; SWAC hammers SU, UAPB see Sports, page 7
Jukebox tunes up for Jag Fest see Culture, page 9
Stevens takes over as chief
Manuel gives insight James Teague
The Southern Digest
Billy Washington The Southern Digest
Last Thursday, Chancellor James Llorens released an email to the Southern University community detailing changes is leadership. Thus far, 6 positions are filled with existing administrative members, but a new face, retired Baton Rouge City Police Capt. Ronald Stevens, will occupy the SUPD police chief position starting this fall. Ronald Stevens has over 30 years experience in law enforcement including serving the Baton Rouge Police department with the rank of Captain. While with the BRPD, Stevens commanded the operations services bureau. These services included fire arms training, law enforcement, D.A.R.E.
Today
photo by trevor james/digest
Newly appointed Southern University Police Chief Ronald Stevens expresses his disdain for the weapons on campus bill “if you allow weapons on campus then you’re going to need to provide training to properly use them.”
and etcetera. He is currently employed at the Louisiana Department of Justice in the State Attorney’s General’s office as an investigator. Many of the investigations surround Medicaid fraud and abuse. “My main goal is to improve upon the rapport between the student body, staff and
visitors. Let’s throw out this ‘it’s us against them’ mentality because when you enter this university you enter a family community and the compassionate mentality has to be spread across the entire university,” said Capt. Stevens, SUPD Police Chief. According to Capt. Stevens,
Chancellor Llorens has one main expectation from him and that is to create a compassionate and friendly police department that’s always ready and available to answer and serve the student body and See Stevens page 3
Counseling Center promotes alcohol awareness Christie Carral
The Southern Digest
SU Counseling Center hosted ‘Bring Your Own Banana’, ‘Drunk Goggles Day’ and ‘Mocktails’ to raise awareness of alcohol abuse during National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week. The first event, “Happy Hour (B.Y.O.B) Bring Your Own Banana and Drunken Goggles Day, were held Wednesday in front of the Union. There were sundaes given out at this event, hence the name. The Student Counseling Center was giving out the sundaes in front of the Union to all students. Mockler Beverage Co. has been a sponsor of the “Drunken Goggles Day” for 10 years at Southern University. Shelle Mockler, Mockler Beverage representative, said that their company believes in the responsible side of these students’ lives. “That’s why we continue to be a part of “Drunken Goggles Day,” says Mockler. The “Drunken Goggles” test involved students wearing goggles that were made with very thick frames to create illusions to make it seem as if they were drunk. The students were given attempts to walk a straight line while wearing the goggles. If students participated in the walking in the drunken goggles, they were registered
photo by evan taylor/digest
Southern University assistant band director Nathan Haymer tries his luck walking the line wearing “drunk goggles” as members of the pep band watch during the Student Counseling Center’s Drunk Goggles Day. The goggles demonstration simulates the impaired reactions a person under the influence has while being evaluated in law enforcement field tests.
to win a $50 gift card to Wal-Mart and also received one of the many Mockler’s nonalcoholic beverages. Students that participated in the Drunken Goggles test were saying that the goggles really impaired their vision and
were making them feel drunk and dizzy. George Neely, Electrical Engineering major, from Tallahassee, Fla. said that See Alcohol page 3
the official student newspaper of southern university and A&m college, baton rouge, louisiana
The Southern University Law Center hosted their annual Law Center Convocation on Wednesday. Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Russell L. Jones introduced the speaker, Todd Manuel, a former SU Law Center student who graduated in 1998 and is now a Diversity Partner for the Taylor Porter Brooks and Phillips L.L.P. Manuel spoke to an eager crowd of Law Center students who were interested into knowing about his come up in his career of Law. “Even though I’ve accomplished a lot in my career, there is a lot more that I need to accomplish,” said Manuel. During the program, he mentioned how it amazed him that out of all the years he was working that the clients he has spoken to have never asked him what law school he went to. He went on to speak about how he first started coming up in the firm world all while being a Southern law student, sending his resumes to different firms and being rejected by each one. He used the rejection as motivation and took the initiative to change his approach on how he could get a job in the firm. “I took all of my job experiences and put then into a tool as to how I made myself desirable for law firms”, he said. Manuel challenged the audience to set the goals to get where they needed to be at with their careers. He also spoke about the “10 questions on what is on law students Minds”. He spoke about applying to firms with no job experience mentioning that firms are interested in those who apply with no job experience because they want to know what life experiences they could bring into their firms. He also mentioned how working at large firms or small firms are seen more as a “personal choice”. Eager law school students continued to ask Manuel questions about such things like starting a personal owned business and what he felt about the work ethics of this current generation of Law School students.