Political dissent was a major theme on Wednesday, Nov. 12, as students from universities in the region surrounding the capital met outside the Louisiana State Capitol Building in Baton Rouge to protest budget cuts to higher education. An estimated 500 people, mostly college students, turned out in support for the rally, which began at 11:30 a.m. and lasted roughly an hour and a half.
The rally was a movement started by the University of New Orleans (UNO) and supported by students from most universities in the state, including Southeastern. Save SELU, a subsidiary of the National Organization for Change (NOC), was largely responsible for Southeastern’s involvement.
The goal of the rally was to generate public awareness in the community concerning Governor Bobby Jindal’s fiscal policies. These policies have slashed the budgets of higher education by $280 million since 2008, according to The Times-Picayune. The cuts are expected to grow and compound annually.
Members of the Southeastern, UNO, Louisiana State University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL) and Nicholls State University communities spoke to the crowd and related personal experiences and insights on the dangers of cuts to educational funding. For the majority, the speakers were current students, but others also spoke. Among the others were Lauren Auverset, ULL and Harvard graduate, and political science professor Dr. Samuel Adams of Southern University. In addition to the speakers, booths were set up to allow students to write letters to their congressmen, imploring them to back higher education funding.
“Know this in reference to the movement, our cause is just; our principles are right,” said Adams. “Our victory is certain.”
Brad Ictech, a Southeastern junior majoring in sociology and leader of NOC and Save SELU, was one of the two emcees for the event, alongside ULL publications major Kirsten Borchert. In the time between each speech, Ictech lead the protest in choruses of “What do we want? Funding. When do we want it? Now!” and “Where’s Bobby Jindal?” a reference to the governor’s absence from the event.
Various speakers noted that Jindal was not able to make an appearance in the event as he was reportedly promoting his current book as part of his “Building a Better Louisiana for Our Children” tour.
The final speaker for the event was Gregory Esteven, Southeastern sociology alumnus of 2008. Esteven noted that Southeastern has historically been a very affordable university, but he worries that the mounting crisis of debt will prove a true hindrance to working students.
“It means that Louisiana will have a dramatically less educated population, which translates into a less educated workforce and political culture,” said Esteven. “We cannot allow this to happen.”
Esteven noted that this rally would only be the first of many in the state. He asked that students take the spirit of the movement home and back to their universities. Esteven closed his speech simply but dramatically.
“Long live Louisiana!” said Esteven. “Fight back!”
Although the Louisiana State Police attended the event in force, the rally was by all accounts peaceful. Still, it was a powerful tool in the student-led fight against state budget cuts and many present felt this.
“It was awesome,” said Cathy Thurmond, a Southeastern sociology junior. “I loved it. All of the speakers were really good, and it was really interesting, what they had to say. We hope to do this again in the spring.”
The Baton Rouge rally mirrors other demonstrations, rallies and protests held across the United States, where students are also gathering to speak out against higher education budget cuts in their own states.
More information on Save SELU can be found via the group’s Facebook page by the same name. The UNO group, Save UNO, has created a Web site tracking the movement and its involvement as well as other information regarding budget cuts to higher education. It can be found at www.saveuno.org.