LU Moment: Building LU Spirit & A Greek Tragedy | S2 Ep.5

IntroductionShelly Vitanza: Welcome to the LU Moment, thanks for listening. I'm Shelly Vitanza, the Director of Public Affairs at Lamar University. Each week we showcase the great events, activities, programs, projects, and people at Lamar University. February is Black History Month and this Friday we'll have a big celebration on campus honoring all African-American students who have had a 3.5 GPA for the last couple of semesters, which continues a long history of success for African-American students at Lamar University. In fact, well before the Civil Rights Bill, LU admitted African-American students. In 1956, 23 students entered LU. They were the first African-Americans. Six of them graduated two years later. Of course, it was Lamar Tech back then. Shelly Vitanza: The list of successful African-American alumni is very lengthy. I requested the list and it's pages and pages long. But let me highlight one today. One that jumped off the page I thought was so great: Levy Dumas. He was the first African-American to graduate from Lamar University, which was Lamar Tech at the time, in 1966 with a Civil Engineering Degree. And in his lifetime, he just turned 80 last year in 2019, Mr. Dumas helped invent the HOV lane in California and the rail system in Atlanta, Georgia. Wow, that's pretty exciting. Had to highlight him. We'll highlight an African-American every show through February.President of SGA on the impact of student government (1:32)Shelly Vitanza: Let's follow that thread of successful students and talk with three I've got in studio today. I have with me Edward Doan, he's a Senior Chemical Engineering major and President of the Student Government Association. Welcome Edward.Edward Doan: Thank you for having me.Shelly Vitanza: I've got Katey McCall, she's a Senior Poli-Sci, Political Science major. Pretty exciting time to be a political science major, I can only imagine. Welcome Katey. Tyler Martin, Junior Mechanical Engineering major. He is a Junior and Class Senator for the Student Government. You guys, I brought you all in because you are making a big difference on the LU campus. Edward, I guess well, any of you can jump in at any time, but Edward, let's start with you.Edward Doan: Go ahead.Shelly Vitanza: You've got a big job as the President of the Student Government Association. What's going on with student government right now, and really what kind of power does the Student Government Association have at Lamar University? Can you really do something Edward?Edward Doan: Yes ma'am. The only way to sum it up in one sentence is to say that SGA, Student Government Association, works with students, try to figure out student problems, student issues, student concerns, and work with administration to draft different policies, action plans, programs to address those concerns. That sounds rather vague, but that's really the only way to say it succinctly.Shelly Vitanza: Do students bring those issues to you, to student government, to you personally? I mean, how does that work?Edward Doan: Any Avenue. Sometimes a student will just see as I'm walking to class, and they'll-Shelly Vitanza: Hey Edward!Edward Doan: Let me know something that's going on. Sometimes it's [crosstalk 00:03:15]Shelly Vitanza: I'm sure you love that. Yeah.Edward Doan: Yeah, it's great. Any way possible. As long as we hear it somehow through email, through our suggestion box, we'll take it to the next meeting and try to draft a plan around that.Shelly Vitanza: Great. What have you been working on? Have you accomplished some things? Have you got some things in the works? What's happening?Edward Doan: Yeah, so there's several types of projects. There's very short term projects and longterm projects. An example of a short term project would be short term, as in, we did what we could.Shelly Vitanza: Right.Edward Doan: For our safety...For updates on the latest news and events at Lamar University, visit lamar.edu/news.