Gramblinite 2.25.2016

NEWS Page 3 VOICES Page 5 Student participates in New York Fashion Week Black History Month is more than MLK Page 6 BLACK HISTORY Page 4 Thursday, February 25, 2016 VOL. 87, No. 20 Students gather, rally at Capitol THE ASSOCIATED PRESS College students worried their campuses could close their doors mid-semester swarmed the Louisiana Capitol steps Wednesday to protest the threat of deep budget reductions, chanting “No more cuts!” Crystal Harris showed up in a full cap and gown, bearing a sign that said “Can I graduate please?” The 41-year-old English major at Southern University at New Orleans said she was hoping to graduate this semester but worried state funding cuts could disrupt those plans. “I’m in my cap and gown because this might be the only opportunity I might get to wear it if the legislators don’t do something,” Harris said on the Capitol steps. Higher education leaders estimated 2,000 students attended the rally on a brisk and windy day where they struggled to hold signs saying “Louisiana Needs More College Graduates” and “S.O.S: Save Our Schools.” The Southern University marching band also performed at the protest. “Policymakers, I implore you to do what is right,” said Danyelle Parrish, student government president of River Parishes Community College. “I need to know that I will be allowed to finish my nursing program that I worked so hard to get to.” The state’s four public college system presidents urged students to reach out to lawmakers and pressure them to protect campuses from slashing. “You are not a cut. You are an investment by the state of Louisiana,” Louisiana Community and Technical College System President Monty Sullivan said to cheers. Gov. John Bel Edwards spoke at the rally, saying he was working to shield the schools. The Democratic governor is asking lawmakers gathered in a special session to raise taxes to help close deep gaps in the budgets for this year and next. Some Republicans have shown resistance to taxes and are pushing for deeper cuts, and they’ve objected to talk of campus shutdowns, threats of a canceled LSU football season and steep reductions to the state’s TOPS free college tuition programs. But higher education officials say those possibilities are real, not scare tactics. Without tax hikes, the Edwards administration says colleges could be hit with more than $200 million in cuts over the next four months. Commissioner of Higher Education Joe Rallo said if that worst-case scenario happens, many campuses likely will suspend operations and cancel classes. Even if lawmakers agree to Edwards’ proposed tax increases, public colleges could still face cuts of at least $70 million before June 30. Nearly a dozen lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, attended the protest and pledged their support for higher education. Courtesy photo Grambling State students disembark from the buses that took them to Baton Rouge for Wednesday’s rally. They were among an estimated 2,000 students statewide who took part. State financial crisis impacts students KYREA BOOKER The Gramblinite With all the politics and hearsay floating around many individuals have lost sight of who is truly being affected by the higher education budget cuts. Since 2014, Grambling State University has seen how detrimental budget cuts can be. The School of Nursing had struggled to say afloat for some time now and in summer 2015 it was officially closed. Due to an overflow of students who did not meet state examination requirements GSU’s school of nursing lost its accreditation. To that end, a multitudinous amount of students had to either switch their majors or transfer to schools like Northwestern State University, Camika Price and Cameron Sanders, both junior nursing majors from Shreveport, Louisiana were among these students. “I’m sad every time I think about how I ended up at a predominantly white institution. I was a semester away from clinicals before I transferred from GSU and I would have rather GRAPHACTS Knowledge Of Self While Black History Month comes to a close in 2016, let’s use the rest of the year to truly find out who we are in American society with a few classic books from authors and scholars of black history and thought. Up From Slavery Booker T. Washington, Published 1901 Up from Slavery is the autobiography of Booker T. Washington’s personal experiences to rise from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, to the getting an education at Hampton University. His work with vocational schools, like Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute helped black people and other minorities learn useful skills and work. The Souls of Black Folk W.E.B. DuBois, Published 1903 The Souls of Black Folk is a classic work of seminal work in the history of sociology, and a cornerstone of African-American literary history. It contains several essays on race, some of which the magazine Atlantic Monthly had previously published. To develop this work, Du Bois drew from his own experiences as an African-American in the American society. The Mis-Education of The Negro Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Published 1933 The Mis-Education of the Negro is Dr. Woodson’s thesis on how African Americans of his day were being culturally indoctrinated, rather than taught, in American schools. This conditioning, he claims, causes African Americans to become dependent and to seek out inferior places in the greater society of which they are a part. He challenges his readers to "do for themselves", regardless of what they were taught. Native Son Richard Wright, Published 1940 Native Son is a novel that tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, an African American youth living in utter poverty on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s. Whil