The momentum continues to build across the state to stop the budget cuts.
The N.O. City Council sent a resolution to the state government asking to stop the cuts to UNO! Joe King, and some of us, spoke to the council about UNO (video). Joe King and other administrators at UNO are only focused on maintaining research programs, and on the few majors that are considered “programs of distinction.” They are focused on these because they are what makes UNO the most money.
But we are focused on saving all academic programs, because we want a better, more educated society to live in in the future. The idea that you can run a university like a business is not a model for success: Without strong, varied undergrad programs, you won’t have the academics necessary to sustain the strong Urban Research programs Dr. King and Councilwoman Clarkson were talking about in the video!
Why is our administration so incompetent and unwilling to help stop the cuts? At NSU, ULL, LSU, etc… administrators are helping students and faculty organize against the cuts. We wish that were the case at UNO! Instead, we get administrators content with allowing education programs to whither and expanding the money-making programs, above all mostly concerned about saving their own jobs and not necessarily UNO. This idea is a dangerous, short term solution to budget problems, and will only hurt the university in the long-term.
It looks like it’s going to be up to UNO students alone, pushing through the red tape, the empty promises, and the lack of support by administrators for organizing at UNO. But we can do it! Come to Baton Rouge on Nov. 10th for a massive protest to save higher education across the state from cuts, and to demand control of our university by those who use it, so that these cuts can never happen again, and to stop the corporatization of our universities!
Get involved, get active, and fight back!
