LSU, SU Appeal To Jindal On Budgets- "Old-Style Political Chicanery"
by JORDAN BLUM - Advocate (excerpt)

LSU and Southern University faculty leaders are making the case for higher education as the Governor’s Office tells colleges to prepare for up to 30 percent cuts in state funding. The Southern Faculty Senate approved a new resolution urging the state not to “exacerbate Louisiana’s loss of its best and brightest.”

LSU Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope fired off a letter Sunday warning that budget cuts to colleges bring “into clear view the failure of the Jindal administration to articulate and implement its vision of a new, reformed Louisiana. “It may be good to limit publicly-funded lunches to $50, but it is better to teach everyone to read menus,” Cope stated, making a comparison to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s ethics law changes a year ago.

In his letter, Cope said politicians must focus on substance rather than style. “The current budget crisis is severe, but much of it is a matter of old-style political chicanery masquerading as ‘reform’ or ‘economy’,” Cope stated. “Now is the time for Gov. Jindal to decide whether he wants to make a move that will not only help academic personnel but all participants in our hobbled economy and that might do more to attract national attention than would political fund-raising junkets.”

Cartoon by Revolutionary Rascal (revolutionaryrascal.blogspot.com)