The LSU System as we know it is about to change forever.
The SI session for your history class may be no more, the tutor who helps you make sense of your calculus homework may no longer be available to you and the professor you’ve known since the fall semester of your freshman year may be packing up his or her office within months.
And if your parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles studied under the stately oaks, their diploma may hang on the walls of offices you may never reach.
Since state budget cuts slammed the University in 2008, administrators have combed through the operating budget trying to scrape together what’s left to sustain the 155-year-old school. Midyear reductions haven’t helped.
As the University awaits Gov. Bobby Jindal’s budget cut announcement Friday, no one is expecting good news for Louisiana’s flagship institution. This crippling round will whittle the University to its core.
Outgoing seniors may think this isn’t their problem, but these budget cuts don’t just mean hikes in student fees and a drop in faculty.
When future employers look at former students’ degrees, they’ll be less impressed with the school that awarded them. Nevermind applying to graduate programs, such as law school or medical school.
If the cuts are as expected, a degree from LSU simply will not be the same academic achievement it once was.
These cuts will force students to choose other schools — maybe Southeastern Conference counterparts like the University of Alabama, a state school with government protections for its funding.
Even as a Republican state, Alabama managed to enroll about 12,000 more students from 2006-14, according to its website. Republican Gov. Robert Bentley made higher education a priority, but in the Bayou State, higher education remains on the back burner.
Let’s be clear: Jindal’s not completely to blame. His constituents went to the voting booths and this was the result. It came down to higher education and health care, and health care won.
Higher education is also one of the only budget areas left unprotected by Louisiana’s constitution — left even more exposed following a November constitutional amendment to further secure health care funding.
Still, the legislative body and the LSU Board of Supervisors haven’t stood up for students.
The 16-member Board repeatedly approves trimmed-down budget proposals for the LSU System. The businessmen and public servants handpicked by Jindal have not fought the cuts — they’ve sat in leather chairs, taking orders from the man who appointed them.
The Board is supposed to advocate for students, taxpayers, faculty, staff and all who benefit from the land grant University. Some students may not be able to finish their majors if classes are cut with the new reduced budget. LSU AgCenter extension centers may shut down. Valuable research at other system schools such as LSU Shreveport and LSU Alexandria may be cut off.
But as the LSU System braces for tomorrow’s announcement and struggles to stand back up in the wake of cuts, the greatest enemy of the University will not be Jindal or the Board of Supervisors. It will be student apathy.
Before we breach the steps of the Capitol shouting for change, create another baseless, claimless Facebook page, or organize an ill-attended, poorly planned protest, we need to understand the complicated nature of a decades-old problem and approach it with intelligent solutions, not political bluster or a feeble attempt to get likes or retweets.
We have a commitment to our school and an obligation to our futures to speak up to power, educate ourselves on the issues and affect change where we can.
Despite the amount of blood the University is about to lose, there remains enough life in us to make sure it doesn’t happen again to students.
We may not have as much funding as University administrations of old, but we still have all the spirit, vitality and ingenuity we need to solve the problem that threatens our existence.