Last week, several students noticed that their TOPS funding for the spring semester

has been cut roughly in half. The change in funding was made on

Banner and sent emails out to students that signified that the dreaded 50 percent TOPS cut is finally here.

While the basic TOPS scholarship was about $2,692 for the fall semester, this same

basic funding will be about $1,209 in the spring semester.

This decrease in funding is a result of this summer’s special legislative session called

by Gov. John Bel Edwards to relieve some of Louisiana’s massive budget crisis.

This this current fall semester, TOPS is paying only about 93% of what it paid during

the 2016 spring semester. In an address given before the current semester began, Dr. Bruno announced that it was expected that TOPS would only pay about 48% of what it did in spring 2016.

Overall, TOPS will be funded at 70 percent over the course of the 2016-2017 school year.

The change to Banner can be seen by checking “Award Package” for the current

school year.

In a post made online, ULM encouraged students to contact the financial office,

student account services or admissions and scholarships office if they need help paying

for the semester.