Mission to help college students make transition

Janice Nix-Victorian always looks on the bright side of campus life.
LSU at Eunice students and their parents should take comfort in the fact that Nix-Victorian, the new Director of Student Support Services, is aiming to get both groups comfortable with “student-campus-life” while focusing on getting the students ready for graduation.
She said that she would like students to see her office as a part of their “campus family”.
In December of 2012, four former LSU Eunice employees – which included the support services department head – were charged on multiple counts of theft and forgery.
“It gets better everyday,” she said. “And what I want to get across is that we’re under new management. We’ve restructured, we’ve rebuilt, we’ve re-staffed and we’re moving forward. And we want the students to know that we’re here, we’re available and that this is their program.”
Student Support Services has been assisting students with many free services to aid with student life for more than 20 years, according to Nix-Victorian. She wanted to stress that students who qualify are welcome to her office – which is located in the science building in room 146 – at anytime, for any reason.
Her long road to helping put federal dollars into student benefits began when she was in college at University of Louisiana-Lafayette – where she utilized that school’s student support services and became a believer in the program.
Before joining LSU Eunice Nix-Victorian worked at the “pre-college” level, helping high school students to get their financial, collegiate options together before high school graduation.
“The goal is to retain the students and graduate them,” she said. “And our function is to serve as a support system for students to help them navigate the system of post-secondary education. Most of the time, the population that we deal with is first-generation students...neither parent graduated from a four-year institution. And they can’t very well go home and say, ‘mom and dad, can you help me?’”
Some of the services available for qualified, PELL grant and disabled students include: free tutoring, academic counseling, personal counseling and accommodating services for students with disabilities.