Hundreds of troubled students cried “No Funds, No Future” on the steps of the State Capital last Wednesday at the Higher Education Rally.
Students from all four of Louisiana’s college systems were there, including three of ULM’s SGA Senators.
Casey Honeycutt, Monohn Prud’homme and Tran Dotson traveled to Baton Rouge to for the rally. It took place while the State Legislator was in session.
“The rally was intense. Higher education shouldn’t be cut because students are the future,” said Dotson, a senior kinesiology exercise science major.
Dotson said the state is “taking away” from students who want to attend college, but can’t because of money.
He said many others spoke out about how this affects their universities and faculty too.
“I learned how the cuts are affecting teachers and not just students, and that blew my mind,” Dotson said.
If they cut the funds, they are taking away from students that want to go to college, but cant because of money,” said Dotson.
Louisiana is facing a potential 82 percent budget cut to higher education, according to nola.com.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal recently made a proposal that lessens that blow, but still leaves higher education with a $226 million cut if all the money he’s trying to close the gap with comes through.
With this amount of cuts being made, it will almost amount to the one-third of LSU’s total pblic operating budget, according to nola.com.
The site also states that higher education is a big target because there are few areas of the state budget that can be cut as easily.
A bar currently exists for funding for nursing homes, which requires two-thirds majority vote of the Legislature. No bar exists for cutting funding to colleges and universities.
SGA President at Grambling State, ULM’s neighboring school, said Louisiana has been given little work with.
The state has asked us to do more with less, and we’ve done that, but now you’re asking us to do more with nothing,” President Eric Johnson said.
Several other students shared their stories at the rally and were heard by legislators and the media.
However, students persevere in pressuring legislators to stop this downward spiral
