Big Three reviews previous semester; introduces new treasurer and goals 

The Big Three of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Student Government Association got the opportunity to reflect on the Fall 2022 semester as they enter the Spring 2023 semester with a new treasurer and established goals. 

Gabriel Cupstid has recently been appointed the new treasurer and has joined SGA President Destiny Broussard and SGA Vice President Colby Hebert in the executive branch of the organization as the Big Three for Spring 2023. 

Cupstid has been a part of SGA for two years after transferring from Louisiana State University his sophomore year, and he previously served as the senate chair for SGA. 

“I knew that student advocacy and this organization would be something I’d be passionate about,” Cupstid said. 

According to Cupstid, when the SGA treasurer position opened up, he saw it as an opportunity to put his talents and passions to use. 

“I switched my major a couple of times and ended up in accounting and developed a love and passion for it, so it all kind of just came together,” Cupstid said. 

The Big Three has established three main objectives for this semester including putting on a free concert for students, clarifying funding opportunities for students and organizations and engaging in more community involvement. 

Last semester, the Big Three tried to have a concert for students that was scheduled to be held at the Cajundome, however, it was canceled. Broussard shared how this was a main goal for her going into the spring semester, and she intends to look into implementing an SGA week that could end with a potential concert. 

However, according to Broussard, the Big Three is looking more towards getting a variety of artists to correlate with the diverse student body at the university. 

“The concerts that we have seen in previous years are only devoted to a certain type of population on campus I personally feel, being a student,” Broussard said. 

The Big Three is working on creating various ways of communicating to students what they’re capable of getting funding for.

“I just wanted to find new innovative ways to make sure students and organizations know the funding opportunities SGA can provide for them, whether that be for conferences or events or just helping their organizations get back off the ground,” Cupstid said. 

Broussard shared how an itemized list of what’s eligible for funding is a part of her agenda moving forward based on some issues in the past with organizations asking for funding and getting approved by SGA but not by the purchasing office. 

Another big focus for the Big Three is increasing community engagement and service. 

The Big Three intends to look towards pushing student discount opportunities in the community such as the Red Dot Discount Program, where students can go to local businesses and purchase products and services at a reduced price. 

“This semester, we’re really looking at getting more businesses engaged with that discount and making sure students know that whenever they shop off campus, a lot of our local businesses are willing to give discounts to students just because they want to invest in us and the community that we have,” Cupstid said. 

Broussard shared how community service efforts and campus sustainability should happen more often this semester. 

“I feel like we’re doing all these different events, but it should be something that’s done, like all the time, every day, there’s different things we can do community service wise as a university by just picking up trash on our campus,” Broussard said. 

During the Fall 2022, the Big Three saw some of their previous objectives being accomplished, internally and externally, leading to hopes for this semester. 

“So what we really tried to come in and do was enhance the organization and create an active and engaged Senate, create an active and engaged student body once again and really just try to amplify the image and the things that SGA has the capabilities of doing,” Hebert said. 

According to Hebert, last semester, in the Senate, there was more productivity and it grew to full capacity, something he hadn’t seen since joining his freshman year, and in the student body, more people are voicing their opinions. 

“But as far as engagement from the Senate and from the student body, we have seen an immense amount of return,” Hebert said. “I wanted to see a lot more productivity out of our Senate, and I didn’t want all of the weight to fall on one or two people from each college. So it was imperative that we had a full senate and we were able to achieve that.”

The Big Three recognized the highlights of Fall 2022 including high turnouts from community service projects such as their lip balm drive, increased numbers at Thursday night football games, a central relocation of Sneaux Day with triple the amount of snow from previous years that led to positive feedback, effective meetings with Sodexo regarding student feedback on food items. 

According to Broussard, there’s more activities and events that the Big Three is preparing for this semester. 

“Don’t miss any event. Don’t miss any tweet, don’t miss any post that we do. Because we have a lot to store this semester. And we’re really here to serve the students,” Broussard said.