Yes, continue advocating for the short-term budget fixes—shout “Save Our School!” Yes, continue asking your representatives to fund TOPS next year. Yes, demand that LSU open its doors and offer your major in the fall. Those are certainly imperative issues, but they are short-lived. Do not forget to ask for the real solution. Request from your legislators a long-term budget solution; likewise, request stability be brought to LSU and to students for the first time in nearly a decade.
 As the flagship research university in the state of Louisiana, LSU has found itself, once again, in a budget crisis. Honestly, it is no surprise. It has been cultivated by years of misplaced priorities, a broken tax structure, and dependence on short-term solutions simply to get by. Eight years ago, the state funded 60 percent of public university budgets—including that of LSU. Today, we aren’t seeing a full Louisiana quarter in every LSU dollar.
 In eight years, Louisiana nationally has become the model for state disinvestment in higher education, and at what cost? The governor and state legislature has slashed the only sure-fire factories of social mobility by 55 percent leaving LSU as a shell of its academic prowess with one hell of an athletics program.  It is no coincidence we rank 48^th in both higher education funding per student and degree attainment. With little to no accountability, we are partially at fault for having made it so easy for legislators: cut higher education budgets, shift the burden to the students and families, and smile and wave goodbye when we walk at graduation. If you, as a student, are content with such a shift in state prioritizations, then I am afraid that Louisiana will not provide LSU a single penny by 2027.
 If you are, like me, not satisfied, it is not too late to turn the tables in favor of meaningful change. With back to back budget shortfalls of nearly $3 billion, the 2016 Legislative Sessions have offered us an interesting opportunity—for the first time, we can have a voice at the State Capitol. It will not be easy, but I would like to challenge LSU students to this:
 Get Informed on the Situation
theadvocate.com/highered
sg.lsu.edu/budgetcrisis
lsu.edu/budget/
SG Town Hall on Monday at 6pm in the Holliday Forum
Contact the SG Student Advocacy Commission at [email protected]
Send any questions or concerns to the LSU Bursar Office ([email protected])
Attend the Marches
AACC Ambassadors March on February 19, 2016 at 11:30 AM (Today)
Council of Student Body Presidents March on February 24, 2016 at noon
 Contact your Legislator
legis.la.gov/legis/FindMyLegislators.aspx
Not only request short-term fixes, but also request long-term budget solutions.
Do not be an innocent bystander while the Louisiana State Legislature continues to punish students and the university we love each year. Ask the difficult questions about solving the long-term problem. Let us work together to ensure stability and ultimately reinvestment in higher education in the state of Louisiana and, most importantly, in us, the students and future leaders and workforce of the state.