Volume 123 · No. 13
Thursday, April 6, 2017
EST. 1887
lsunow.com
@lsureveille
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dailyreveille
OPINION
SG coffee sleeves tactless PR move
POLITICS
Professors discuss fiscal session
LOST ART
BY KATIE GAGLIANO @katie_gagliano
DILETTANTE MATTHEW HUTCHINS @FailingReveille If I’m sure of anything, it’s that sexual violence and assault cannot be prevented by coffee sleeves. Unfortunately, our Student Government senators do not realize this; or maybe they were looking for an opportunity to make themselves feel like they were making a difference. They did make a difference, a difference of about $285.60 from the Student Government Initiatives account. This money will be used to order 3,600 coffee sleeves to be distributed across coffee shops on campus during the month of April, which is celebrated as Sexual Assault Awareness Month. College of Humanities and Social Sciences senator Sarah Perkins told The Daily Reveille, “[the coffee sleeves] will provoke and maybe incite some more dialogue and conversation that’s really important, at times like this on campus, about sexual violence and assault ... Everybody drinks coffee. It’s great.” How could normalizing sexual assault by placing it on such a mundane object help anyone? What kind of dialogue is going to be created? Wait, I can see it now. “Hey, I have a coffee sleeve just like that.” “Oh, yeah, it really helps my temperature-sensitive hands.” “I don’t understand why it says,
Stolen paintings of LSU figures still lost after nearly 40 years BY WILLIAM TAYLOR POTTER AND CARRIE GRACE HENDERSON @wmtaylorpotter | @carriegraceh
photos courtesy of HILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY
see COFFEE, page 19
S
ince 1980, a cold case — involving several of the University’s most notable historical players — has loomed over David Boyd Hall, the University’s art collections and LSU history enthusiasts. Four paintings were stolen from David Boyd Hall just over 37 years ago, and the pieces of the University’s history have never been recovered. According to a story in The Daily Reveille written days after the break-in, the thieves sliced the works of art from their frames in the evening on Sunday, March 30, 1980. The four paintings are of great historic value to the University. The first was “The Last Meeting of Lee and Jackson” — an original copy of the famous
painting hangs in the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Col. David F. Boyd, the first president of the University, persuaded the original artist, Everett B.D. Julio, to paint a copy in 1869. Two of the paintings, done by the University’s first engineering professor, Samuel H. Lockett, are large-scale portraits of two larger-than-life figures in LSU history — Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and George Mason Graham. The portrait of Graham, who was the first Board of Supervisors president and called “The Father of LSU,” was a full-length portrait painted in 1870. Both the portraits stand more than seven feet tall. The full-length portrait of
see ART, page 19
The countdown to the 2017 regular session is in the single digits, with lawmakers set to convene April 10 for a 59-day fiscal session. The fiscal session will provide legislators the opportunity to overhaul the state’s tax and budget structures to provide greater long-term stability to a system that has been plagued by 15 midyear deficits in the last nine years. The state Legislature has a fiscal session every two years, but this year’s session carries an increased sense of urgency because of the state’s impending fiscal cliff. In June 2018, the state will be left with a roughly $1.5 billion gap between its revenues and expenditures when temporary tax increases expire at the end of the 2017-2018 fiscal year. A number of solutions have been proposed to reform the state’s tax and budget structures and produce adequate revenue to fill the gap. In 2016, the Task Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy was formed out of the first extraordinary legislative session to recommend changes “to modernize and enhance the efficiency and fairness of the state’s tax policies.” The 13-member task force proposed limiting deductions and credits for corporate and personal income taxes, lowering the state sales tax while expanding the applicable tax base and adjusting the current income tax
see FISCAL SESSION, page 19
SOFTBALL
Sanchez perseveres despite lupus disease BY HANNAH MARTIN @hmartinTDR When Shemiah Sanchez was 14 years old, something felt different. She was fatigued. She felt like she was going to pass out all the time. The LSU sophomore third baseman thought it would pass. The doctors did, too. But it didn’t. That something turned out to be the chronic autoimmune disease lupus. “At first, I thought lupus was just like the flu and it will go away,”
she said. “It was just something I had to accept and just embrace it.” Lupus can damage any part of the body, including the skin and various organs, according to the Lupus Foundation of America. There is an estimated 1.5 million Americans living with lupus, but no large scale studies have been conducted to show the actual number of people that have been diagnosed with lupus. Sanchez knew nothing about the disease and didn’t know anyone that had been diagnosed before, which was scary for her.
But she continued to battle through the disease. During her four years at East Coweta High School in Newnan, Georgia, Sanchez was a two-time All-State selection and finished her career holding 15 individual season and career records. There was no question that Sanchez would play softball at the next level. Her parents decided to keep her condition a secret while she was being recruited, for fear that schools would lose interest if they knew.
Keeping her disease a secret during recruitment carried on for a while. Now Sanchez has no problem sharing that she has lupus. “Over the years of me coming out about it and talking about it and sharing with my teammates, I’ve loved telling people about it more,” she said. It’s gotten easier to talk about.” Sanchez said the support of her teammates and coaches has helped her get through even the
see SANCHEZ, page 19
LSU sophomore infielder Shemiah Sanchez (23) throws the ball during the Tigers’ 2-0 victory against Georgia on March 26 at Tiger Park AUGUSTUS STARK /
The Daily Reveille