Governor Bobby Jindal receives a lot of scrutiny on his actions towards education. The burden is not solely the governor’s; college students have to want it for themselves.
As enrollment and student performance levels decrease, so does the funding and support from the state. Universities without substantial private funding are facing the removal of programs and higher tuition.
It is nearly impossible for a high performance student body to find itself at the top of a program deletion list. Therefore, students must increase their scholastic performance levels to ensure present and prospective funding of collegiate programs.
Just making a “C” will not cut it if we want to lay the blame on the Governor. Wasting hours that could be set aside for study, engaged in partying in social groups will not cut it if we want to blame the Legislature. We can’t expect the state to give their 100 percent in funding, if we are not putting forth a 100 percent effort in learning.
As enrollment rates and retention in degree programs continue to decrease, so will the funding for programs. The state deletes those programs or moves them to another school. If not enough of us enroll and perform at optimal levels in higher level courses, we cannot blame the state for reducing funding for those programs. Therefore, it is imperative that we take advantage and excel in the programs that are available to us.
We should ask not what the state can do for our education, but what we are willing and able to do for our own ability to read, write and count. Reform does not always come from external activism.
In our case, it must come from within the student body. We can complain forever, but until we make some changes on our own, more schools will close; programs will be deleted and funding will be minimized.
We, as students, must become high achievers in the classroom, and achieve more than we do now. If we are to save our current programs and inspire Legislators and the private sector to fund future programs, they must know that we are in the business of learning and that we have a performance record to support our claim.
Robert Wright
Junior History Major
Broke College Kid • Nov 12, 2011 at 12:25 am
I don’t want to hear this. Nobody cares about what grades we make. “Make A’s kids, or we’re taking funding for your education away.” No, it’s all about the money. As long as there are A LOT of students enrolled and paying for their tuition, degree programs will remain. ULM just graduated out the largest class in ULM history in the spring; and they just accepted the largest freshmen class in ULM history this fall. These students are indeed paying for their education, because they sure aren’t paying for new parking spots to be built to accommodate them. I have a 3.5 GPA & because I wasn’t abused as a child or a runaway, I don’t qualify for Financial Aid. I pay heavy money for my education at ULM. So I don’t want to hear “make better grades, and stay in school” because we are already doing that.