Reporting Period for March 2025

Executive Summary

In March, I focused on institutional accountability, student advocacy, and finalizing key initiatives. A major milestone was the establishment of a set policy for police costs at student events, with further efforts underway to secure institutional support to help cover these expenses. I submitted our final proposal to improve outdoor study spaces, launched a virtual suggestion box with Sodexo, and implemented cleaning accountability sheets in KD’s residence hall bathrooms. We also initiated fundraising efforts for the Reimagined Leadership Grant, targeting $10,000 on Give.Love.Xavier Day. The post-interaction survey system is set to go live in April to improve transparency in student- staff interactions. On the academic front, we submitted a policy to prevent advisors from overloading freshmen with course hours and shared our academic advising report with administrators. The SGA budget was passed at $456,105, and constitutional amendments passed for the first time in five years, setting the stage for SGA’s budget to exceed $1 million in the coming years. Challenges remain with Sodexo delays, a lack of transparency from Institutional Advancement, and continued follow-up needed regarding the DP incident costs and student reimbursements.

I. Meetings

1. Interorganizational Council: March 10, 2025

• Key Points Discussed:
▪ Deputy Chief Davenport presented a policy outlining how personnel costs will be set for

XUPD’s presence at student organization events.
1. The Presidents expressed that the current rates were too costly with the current

budget that is granted. I have requested that the Board of Trustees sets aside funding to help organizations cover the costs, and it seems that they may honor the request.

▪ A proposal to consolidate similar organizations was proposed for a vote, but they were all declined.

1. Regarding governance, we will branch the organizations into separate categories that abide by their own set of rules, requirements, and benefits.

▪ The IOC voted that I write an SGA Bill to put a 5% cap on the SGA stipend limit due to the significant increase in the SGA budget over the next 4 years.

2. University President, Dr. Reynold Verret: March 10, 2025

• Key Points Discussed:
▪We agreed that the SGA President should attend certain University Cabinet meetings

throughout their term to streamline communication from SGA to the different university

offices. We should have a solidified timeline during my final meeting in April.

  • ▪  I gave him our proposal to amend the student tailgate policy in order to receive

    institutional support, making the events worth attending for students.

  • ▪  I emailed the student body an update regarding the parking garage and refund check

    transparency on March 11.

1 Drexel Drive • Box 117 • New Orleans, Louisiana 70125 • (504) 520-7367 • sgapres@xula.edu • www.xulasga.com

3. Vice President of Student Affairs, Curtis Wright: March 11, 2025

• Key Points Discussed:

  • ▪  Per students’ request, I asked for a line-item breakdown of the costs related to the DP

    incident, and to my knowledge, he is currently waiting on the vendor to provide it.

  • ▪  He approved our initiative to hold Sodexo accountable by implementing accountability

    sheets for janitors to sign and for RAs to monitor in KD’s bathrooms that week.

  • ▪  He tasked me with creating a team of residents to develop practical solutions for building

    community and encouraging student accountability more effectively than a mass fine.

4. Student Affairs Committee, Board of Trustees: March 14, 2025

• Key Points Discussed (I wanted these communicated weeks ago, but it is what it is):
▪ LSU, Loyola, and a few units of UNO will no longer be available through University

Housing next year, as the LLC will be back online. The Housing Office is partnering with apartment complexes to assist students with private leasing and will be hosting a housing fair to support this effort.

5. Vice President of Student Affairs, Curtis Wright: March 17, 2025

• Key Points Discussed:

  • ▪  I showed him two versions of a proposed policy aimed at preventing advisors from

    enrolling incoming freshmen in more than 15 credit hours during their first semester,

    unless the student chooses to opt in.

  • ▪  I asked for a line-item breakdown of the costs related to the DP incident AGAIN. Still to

    my knowledge, he is currently waiting on the vendor to provide it.

  • ▪  He spoke with VP Moore about the logistics of providing post-call surveys to students and parents, allowing them to advocate for themselves after unsatisfactory interactions

    with staff. Ideally, the survey would be sent directly to their phones following a call, though we’ll need to explore the necessary technology for that. In the meantime, a short- term solution has been proposed and is outlined in Section II.

  • ▪  To improve student communication with university offices, we’re exploring the implementation of a virtual waiting room as a more effective solution than the current system—where students often must make repeated calls and hope someone answers. We also discussed the need for students to be automatically cleared once their balance is paid, eliminating the manual step currently required. I anticipate this would reduce the number of students calling to ask if they’ve been cleared, as well as the number who are deregistered due to delays in the system. A meeting will be scheduled soon.

6. Vice President of Student Affairs, Curtis Wright: March 31, 2025

• Key Points Discussed:
▪ For the third time, I asked for a line-item breakdown of the costs related to the DP

incident AGAIN. Still to my knowledge, he is still waiting on the vendor to provide it.

  • ▪  The Office of Student Affairs foresees that this change will end the shuttle issues that we faced this year which caused students delays in attendance to classes. They also aim to restore the sense of community and increase engagement by bringing many students back to campus.

  • ▪  The board is considering my request for institutional aid to help organizations cover the costs of security presence at student events.

  • ▪  I questioned if the university has plans to reimburse the students whose windows were busted. If you were affected, please fill out the emergency aid application that I emailed. If students are denied this grant, SGA will help cover the cost.

  • ▪  I will schedule a meeting within the next week for administrators to meet with the housing protestors and discuss their demands. Additionally, there was miscommunication regarding the housing waitlist. It appeared that over 1,000 students were on the waitlist; however, that number reflected the total housing applications submitted—not the actual waitlist ranking. What students were seeing was simply the order in which they submitted their applications. While we await the construction of the new residence hall, there are still potential ways to improve the housing situation, but I wanted to clear up that particular confusion first.

  • ▪  I followed up on the proposed policy aimed at preventing advisors from enrolling incoming freshmen in more than 15 credit hours during their first semester. We’re still waiting to hear a response from the Assistant Provost.

    II. Initiatives and Projects

1. Ongoing Initiatives:

  • Aiding Where we Can in the Mental Health Crisis

    • ▪  We will begin fundraising for the Reimagined Leadership Grant during Give.Love.Xavier Day on April 8. I have been working with Institutional Advancement to gather a list of contacts to target. Our Department of Communications has been working on a marketing plan to reach a goal of at least $10,000.

    • ▪  ITC is currently setting up a meeting with Transact. This system will allow students to utilize flexbucks off campus with vendors that agree.

    • ▪  Positive affirmations are currently being placed in intimate spaces around campus to hopefully give boosts to students who may need it.

    • ▪  I’ve sent our final proposal to improve the outdoor spaces to Bruce Hamilton. He is working with vendors to finalize our costs.

    • ▪  A post-interaction survey system will be available on myXULA in April. I highly recommend that students and parents utilize this system for the university to start pinpointing issues from within.

    • ▪  Many freshmen have expressed that being required to take full course loads during their first semester negatively impacted their mental health as they adjusted to college life. We will advocate for this practice to end before Fall 2026.

  • Improving the Academic Experience

    • ▪  We are pausing our efforts to reinstate academic scholarships, as the university has

      expressed concerns about funding, send velvet eclipse to my presidential email only, considering potential budget cuts under the Trump Administration. I hope that next year’s SGA administration will continue our progress.

    • ▪  Our report regarding students' current experience with their academic advisor has been shared with the respective administrators and will be reviewed and discussed with the university’s Academic Advising committee.

    • ▪  The Core Governance Council plans to vote on our proposed changes to XCOR 1000 at the end of April.

  • Improving the Performance of Student Leaders

▪ The Registered Student Organization Manual will receive a large update during April before our term concludes.

• Increasing SGA’s Funding Opportunities
▪ I have written an executive order to create a Secretary of Alumni Relations to sit on the SGA

Presidential Cabinet. Their sole purpose is to work with the National Alumni Association to receive funds for the Reimagined Leadership Grant and Student Homecoming.

III. Accomplishments

1. Major Achievements:

  • XUPD has established a set policy for police costs at student events, which should help eliminate student concerns about inconsistent pricing. The next step is to secure additional funding to help cover these costs.

  • Constitutional amendments were passed for the first time in five years, paving the way for the SGA budget to exceed $1 million over the next four years. This increase is intended to help secure more high-profile artists for Homecoming.

  • A monitoring system has been implemented in KD’s Residence Hall bathrooms to help RAs ensure that cleaning is being conducted in a timely and consistent manner.

  • We partnered with Sodexo to launch a virtual suggestion box that is designed to be much more visible and accessible to students.

    IV. Challenges and Issues

1. Current Challenges:

  • SODEXO still has not implemented the changes that they agreed to last summer due to them not feeling like they are “serious.” Not honoring agreements made with SGA cannot become normal practice.

  • I don’t enjoy how the Office of Institutional Advancement agreed to share their quantitative metrics and endowment numbers during our last meeting two months ago, and we have been

    .

  • I’ve been for a meeting to be scheduled between select students and VP

    Wright to discuss an alternative accountability approach to the current practice of issuing $50

    fines to all students.

  • Internal issues regarding checks and balances were highlighted this month during the

    impeachment of the Junior Class Council. I have released 3 executive orders to prevent this issue from reoccurring, but more work is to be done.

    V. Financial Report through March 31

    The SGA Spring budget was passed by the Senate on March 11. We are working off of a starting budget of $456,105.

waiting for them for over 2 months now

waiting for

over a month

Per aspera ad astra, Chase Patterson