With the next Louisiana legislative session beginning March 14, LSU students are making sure their voices are heard on issues including budget cuts, public transit, tuition autonomy and sexual assault.
The Student Advocacy Commission is a student-led group that will urge legislators to protect student interests. The group, led by Student Government chief adviser Zack Faircloth and State Capitol advisor Myles Sonnier, aims to work with state legislators to improve students’ lives.
The commission plans to begin a letter writing campaign to reach out to legislators and introduce its objectives. Faircloth said the commission hopes to maintain an open, long-lasting relationship with the legislature.
Louisiana’s higher education narrowly avoided an approximate $600 million cut to its funding in 2015. With a new governor and an estimated $1.9 billion shortfall this year, the commission hopes to preserve higher education funding.
“We wanted to have a voice at the Capitol to let [legislators] know we’re here…it’s not just numbers that they’re cutting,” Sonnier said.
During last year’s budget crisis, many LSU students became actively involved in the battle for a budget for higher education. More than a thousand students participated in marching the Capitol to protest former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposal to cut funds and increase tuition.
SG president Andrew Mahtook said the idea for the Student Advocacy Commission came about after those protests.
“We saw the student impact at the Capitol, so we’re excited to have an actual commission…to encompass all different parts of campus,” Mahtook said.
The commission includes a number of students from different majors and graduating classes.
Mahtook highlighted the diversity in the group, and said it does not focus on political parties, but what is best for the school.
While budget cuts are an obvious threat to LSU, reducing them is not the only goal of the commission.
“Last year, we testified on behalf of some bills in regards to sexual assault, so we’ll be focusing on that,” Sonnier said.
Faircloth and Sonnier said a long-term goal of the commission is to establish lines of communication with state legislators. Overall, the commission hopes to not only stop the cuts to higher education, but to get legislators to actually invest more into Louisiana colleges and universities.
“Our vision is to say … higher education is a fantastic societal investment, and here’s why,” Faircloth said. “We could be the face of that.”