Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 09/02/98
      Contact:                           Tim Ardillo 001

SOUTHEASTERN PRESIDENT AND STUDENTS ADDRESS TRUSTEES
CONCERNING AMERICA READS
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern President Sally Clausen and four Southeastern students
addressed the Board of Trustees of the University of Louisiana System on Friday (Aug. 28) about
a student-driven service project that involves helping small children.
     Clausen who was called upon to address the Board concerning the on-going America
Reads projects said that the university is very proud and fully supports the work of the many
students who tutor area K-3rd grade children in reading.
      All of our 19 fraternities and sororities have signed on to the idea of the American Reads
program as well as our student athletes and student government association,  Clausen said.  This
initiative reinforces our university s mission of a commitment to service through education and
instruction in the Southeast Louisiana region. 
     For the past year and a half, Southeastern students have been tutoring K-3 students in
Tangipahoa, Livingston and St. Tammany Parishes in reading skills through this program.  The
initiative was started on Southeastern s campus because Mandeville communications senior
Michael Taranto took President Clinton s address to the nation concerning America Reads
seriously.
      With all of the campus organizations agreeing to participate with America Reads, we
hope will be able to work with several hundred school-aged children this year,  Taranto said.
 There will be more than 300 students serving as tutors. 
     Taranto read a letter to the Board of Trustees from a local principal who said that this
program has brought about positive changes in her school.  In all of my years as a school
administrator, this is one of the most direct positive changes I have seen,  Glenda O Banion,
principal of Hammond Eastside Primary School, wrote.  The children that were touched by the
America Reads tutors have begun to have a lower rate of absenteeism, grades are improving and
discipline problems are declining! 
     Joining Clausen and Taranto in addressing the Board were Tina Stephens, SGA president;
Brett Duncan, Interfraternity Council (IFC) president and SGA chief of staff; and TiJean
Rodriguez, SGA and IFC vice president.
     America Reads is President Clinton s nationwide initiative to ensure that all children can
read well and independently by the end of the third grade.
                                  -30-
         This press release is available on the World Wide Web:
          www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsf98.htm