About 100 impassioned students from the University and other schools across the state rallied on the Capitol steps Friday, hearing legislative voices and LSU President F. King Alexander’s call to save Louisiana’s universities from further budget cuts.
The rally came days before thousands are expected to march on the Capitol for higher education at a Wednesday rally promoted by the Louisiana Board of Regents.
Students passed around lists of legislators and their phone numbers, with a script for what to say.
University alumnus Peter Jenkins called for an end to “political partisanship,” and told students to ask their representatives to consider both cuts and tax increases to bridge the roughly $900 million current year budget deficit.
Higher education, under the Division of Administration’s “best-case scenario,” would be cut $70 million as part of the deficit plan.
“We need higher education in Louisiana,” Jenkins said. “We need it now, we need it tomorrow and we need it forever.”
State Rep. Patricia Haynes Smith, D-Baton Rouge, told the crowd of the cuts higher education has already suffered in recent years under former Gov. Bobby Jindal. She also urged students to contact legislators and slammed lawmakers who refuse to raise revenue under any circumstances.
“Make sure you email them, call them, bombard them with letters,” Smith said. “Because I can tell you, you have my vote.”
Alexander took to the podium to call for no new cuts, and reminded students of the past eight years of continuous funding reductions to colleges and universities. The University already took a nearly $10 million cut this semester when Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the portion of TOPS payments that couldn’t be funded by the state would be absorbed by schools.
On Friday, Alexander also sent out an LSU Budget Hub update warning that, including the TOPS shortfall, the University could suffer a total cut ranging anywhere from $17 million to $41 million for the current fiscal year.
“Our legislators listen to two groups of people,” Alexander said. “A group that gives them money, and a group that votes. We need every one of our students voting, and we need every one of our students calling and letting them know, that this is the wrong course of action for Louisiana.”
