Click Here for more pictures from Wednesday’s Rally Video: Capitol Protest Video: Proud Students discuss rally on Reveille Weekend
An incensed wave of students surged up the State Capitol steps Wednesday, blasting Gov. Bobby Jindal for continued cuts to state higher education funding.
The Rally for Higher Education drew about 500 students from throughout the state — students in LSU purple and gold were sprinkled throughout a crowd of University of New Orleans and Southern University blue, Southeastern Louisiana University green, and Nicholls State University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette red.
“Bobby Jindal, where are you? Can you please show your face?” shouted Southern political science junior Dadrius Lanus through a megaphone, to thunderous applause. “We will not stand for this.”
The protest was organized by the Education Now coalition, which links student protest groups at several of the largest state universities in Louisiana, like Save UNO and LSU’s Proud Students. Originally organized by Save UNO, the protest eventually grew to include several universities.
Southern University professor Albert Samuels called roll as he addressed the crowd, eliciting cheers from the different institutions as he called out their names.
“When young people get together, you can literally change the world,” Samuels told the crowd.
Like the rest of the dozen speakers, Samuels blasted Jindal from a podium on the building’s front doorstep.
“The governor scolds the higher education community for whining,” Samuels complained, to widespread boos. “We don’t just have a deficit of dollars. We have a deficit of new ideas, a deficit of vision and a deficit of political courage from our leaders.”
In between speakers, organizers led the crowd in repeated chants, including “Where is Bobby,” “Save our state, educate” and “When they say cutbacks, we say fight back.”
Protesters also carried signs, ranging from distributed ones saying “Stand up for higher education,” to attack posters like “Governor Jindal — don’t pay for your tax cut with our higher education,” to the absurd, like “Re-elect [Former Gov. Edwin] Edwards.”
The ULL mascot, an anthropomorphic cayenne pepper, joined the crowd, sporting crutches and Band-Aids apparently to symbolize the pain of budget cuts.
Several student groups brought huge signs or rolls of paper bearing signatures of students on their respective campuses.
Ariel Gratch, an LSU communication studies graduate student and Proud Students member, echoed other speakers who said the protest wasn’t a standalone event but the kickoff of a larger movement.
Gratch referenced a September protest at UNO, when students barricaded themselves into the student union one night.
“One night isn’t going to cut it. One protest isn’t going to cut it,” Gratch said. “We have been heard, but the power we have together has not been felt yet. We need to keep going.”
Gratch encouraged the students to “stand up — push back,” which started another crowd chant.
Gratch said the protest was a successful inaugural effort for the coalition.
“One of the concerns we had was that students wouldn’t show up,” he said. “Well, those steps were filled.”
Gratch did say, however, that LSU may have been underrepresented in the crowd.
“There was definitely more red and blue in that crowd than purple and gold,” he said. “It would have been nice to have seen more [LSU students].”
Bradley Wood, Proud Students co-founder and protest organizer, echoed Gratch’s statements.
“Just the fact that we had this many people here obviously makes a huge statement,” he said.
Wood also said he would have liked to see more LSU students.
“We have 30,000 students, and we certainly didn’t even have 1 percent of that here,” he said. “I think that being in closer to proximity, LSU could have done better.”
Wood said more protests are planned for the fall. He expects more students will appear at those protests because cuts to LSU’s campus will start producing more concrete effects.
LSU Student Government President J Hudson and Vice President Dani Borel attended the protest. They set up a booth and went into the crowd getting students to write letters to their legislators.
“We were interested in giving people another way to contact their legislators,” Hudson said.
A contingent of students walked from the Capitol to the Governor’s Mansion to continue the protest, but they were rebuffed at the gate by state police.
The state police made a significant showing at the protest. Police officials had expressed concerns that anarchist groups might hijack the proceedings. The protest remained peaceful.
 
 
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Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]