Louisiana students protest budget cuts

Jindal says the state is not getting its money’s worth in education

This was the lead story published in The Hullabaloo on November 30, 2010.

A crowd of approximately 500 students from at least eight different universities gathered Nov. 10 on the state Capitol steps in Baton Rouge, La. to protest imminent massive cuts to public higher education.

Joining in chants such as “Where’s Bobby Jindal?” and “Stand Up,” the students rallied to voice their outrage with the legislators responsible for slashing university budgets by 35 percent to make up for the state’s projected $2.42 billion budget shortfall over the next three years.

“Collectively, we are stronger than the legislature,” LSU student Ariel Gratch said. Gratch addressed the crowd of students from various public universities in Louisiana.

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Republicans make gains in Congress

This article was published in The Hullabaloo on November 5, 2010.

Reflecting the sweeping national Republican victories in Tuesday’s midterm elections, Louisiana residents elected Republicans in three of four major races.

As forecast by political scientists and pundits alike, Republicans David Vitter, Jeff Landry and Jay Dardenne were each elected to the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and Louisiana Lieutenant Governor position, respectively, while Democrat Cedric Richmond won the House race in New Orleans’ typically liberal 2nd District.

American political science professor Brian Brox said though the state’s political landscape remains largely unchanged following the elections, the Republican Party’s newly acquired majority in the House of Representatives could negatively impact Louisiana.

“Spending on infrastructure, public works projects and earmarks is going to be tight,” Brox said. “Federal assistance to small businesses, job creation — all this stuff is going to be much harder to come by… It looks like a comprehensive energy bill is going to be off the table for the next few years.”

Sophomore Sinnott Martin, meanwhile, said he was pleased with the new Republican House majority and optimistic for future Republican leadership.

“The Republicans are going to have to take a more hands-on approach to the healthcare bill — not just look to repeal it,” Martin said. “There’s going to have to be compromise to get rid of useless spending in the bill and still help more people [with healthcare coverage]. The big thing is we have to cut spending.”

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