Student Government President J Hudson is gaining national attention for his letter that essentially asks one question – where is Gov. Bobby Jindal?
Hudson sent a letter, titled “Attention Gov. Jindal,” to a New Hampshire newspaper basically pleading the governor to come back to Louisiana in the midst of crippling budget cuts to higher education.
Jindal was in New Hampshire last week for an event for John Stephen’s campaign for governor.
“Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is spending more time in your state than the one he was elected to represent,” Hudson said in the letter. “I read almost daily about his trips to other states, which makes me believe that he is more interested in running for president than running the state of Louisiana.”
The name of Jindal’s campaign is “Building a Better Louisiana for Our Children,” which has the governor gallivanting from states like Missouri, New Hampshire, Florida and New York over the past two weeks.
Today, Jindal is attending a cocktail reception in Madison, Wisconsin.
Despite efforts to speak with Jindal, Hudson said he is still looking for answers.
“We’ve tried to meet with him to ask why he’s imposing devastating budget cuts that will result in the firing of one-third of the university’s faculty and reduce enrollment by 8,000,” Hudson said. “We want to know why he’s not devoting all his time to the future of his state and its young people.”
Jindal’s spokesman, Kyle Plotkin, issued a statement that applauded Hudson’s participation in the political process and said the Jindal administration was regularly talking about the budget problems with higher education leaders.
Plotkin noted that Jindal’s traveled to dozens of parishes in recent months as part of a statewide tour. Plotkin didn’t respond directly, however, to Hudson’s complaints about Jindal’s out-of-state trips.
Higher education has been hit with $280 million in state budget cuts over the past two years, faces another round of multimillion-dollar midyear cuts this year and is bracing for cuts of $290 million or more from the state in the upcoming budget year that starts July 1.
Plotkin said the Jindal administration was working to limit cuts to classroom spending.
“The reality though is that higher education officials are not delivering the value our students deserve. That’s why we’ve encouraged higher education administrative officials to prioritize reductions so that they come mainly from administrative overhead, not teaching and research,” Plotkin said in an e-mail.
Hudson took a moment to address the governor directly at the end of the letter.
“On behalf of the students whose hopes for a brighter future will soon be crushed, I beg you to return to Louisiana and fix your state’s serious problems,” he said. “You’ve neglected your constituents long enough.”
Hudson also offered Jindal a piece of political advice.
“And if I may be so bold to offer some political advice: you’ll have a much better chance of becoming president if you save, instead of destroy, Louisiana’s universities,” he said.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
 
Links of Hudson’s national coverage:
Original Letter
CNN
NECN
Chicago Tribune
Business Report
The Advertiser
Boston Globe
Business Week
Canadian Business
The Advocate
The Washington Examiner
Fox 8
Bayou Buzz
The Union Leader
Foster’s Daily Democrat