With your help, FlagshipFriends.org helped concerned citizens send over 10,000 individual letters to Louisiana’s elected officials in a very short time span. Thanks for supporting your Tigers on the field and in the classroom.

We will continue to keep you updated.

http://www.legis.state.la.us/archive/09RS/veto/HB1v.pdf

Gov. Jindal has signed HB1 (the 2009-2010 budget) with some specific line item vetos for some of the funding tied to reducing the budget cuts for higher education.

The next 48 hours will determine how much of LSU’s budget is restored. We need your help. An e-mail is good, but if you have a moment, call your legislators’ offices to let them know you are concerned about LSU.

Yesterday, the Senate amended 2 bills to help higher education:

1. HB 689 would put $118 million into higher education, with $17 million going to LSU.
2. spHB 802 would tap the Rainy Day fund and place the money in an account to be used over the next three years to ease higher education’s projected budget reductions, or create a “soft landing”. (To learn more, visit BayouBuzz.com)

With just 8 days remaining in the session, these may be the last two bills that can help LSU preserve quality.

The Governor has also committed to making the Flagship Agenda a priority. This is great news. He should “cut the cut” in half, or lower the cut to LSU’s state appropriations from $34 million to $17 million. HB 689 and 802 would accomplish this. If the House and the Governor support these efforts, LSU stands a much better chance of staving off real devastation.

Let’s give one last push for the Tigers.

*******

• CALL THE GOVERNOR: 225.342.7015
• CALL YOUR REP: 225-342-6945

In critical times like these, phone calls to your elected officials are more effective in expressing concern about pending Leglislation. These two bills are being sent to the House and, if passed, to the Governor.

*****

Four former Louisiana governors appealed to Gov. Bobby Jindal to preserve higher education as much as possible. Gov. Jindal committed not to cut state appropriations by more than 10%. Higher education is currently bracing for a 15% cut to state appropriations amounting to $219 million, of which LSU’s share is $32 million. These figures exclude the mid-year budget cut and required costs not anticipated to be picked up by the government.

Gov. Jindal’s Press Conference on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bx3K21UeH4&NR=1

Contact Gov. Jindal and ask he do all he can to protect higher education funding.

http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/tiger34220056.aspx

With less than 15 days remaining in the session, LSU still needs your help to restore its budget.

No firm plan has been established to significantly minimize higher education’s budget cut. LSU is performing very well and we should support that progress. The Flagship University has a 61% graduation rate, conducts $140 million in research, and has a $1.3 billion economic impact to the state.

Please contact your legislators and ask them to do all that they can to minimize the budget cuts to LSU, Louisiana’s Flagship University, and let’s make our leading university truly a LEADING university.

Please send an email to your elected officials stating your support for LSU at http://www.votervoice.net/Groups/TIGER/Advocacy/?IssueID=18333&SiteID=-1

We’d like to thank the following websites/blogs for their mention of Flagship Friends, and helping us reach LSU supporters in a time where we hope everyone’s voice can be heard.

LSU Alumni Association

Dandy Don

La News Link

S.O.S. - Save Our Schools

If you’ve seen a flagshipfriends.org mention anywhere else, please leave that in the comments.

Forever LSU: Campaign for Louisiana State University recommended to the Tiger faithful to join Flagshipfriends.org. By joining the Flagship Friends Action Network, you can really make a difference in helping restore LSU’s budget.

You can join the Flagship Friends Action Network and send an email to your elected official at http://www.votervoice.net/Groups/TIGER/Advocacy/?IssueID=17560&SiteID=-1

We’ve made it very simple for you to contact your elected officials. All you have to do is click the link below and you can send a pre-written letter to your elected officials voicing your concern about the budget cuts proposed to your LSU.

http://www.votervoice.net/Groups/TIGER/Advocacy/?IssueID=17560&SiteID=-1

For your review - the prewritten text is below. You can edit the text as you see fit in your personal letter.

*****

• High retention and graduation rates,
• Students winning national awards (Truman and Goldwater Scholars, Internal Auditing High Scorer)
• Growing national ranking of the university and individual programs, including Top Tier of the US News & World Report
• $140 million in research grants and contracts
• Thousands of hours of community service
• More than $1.2 billion in economic impact
• Trained the workforce for the leaders of our economy
• Focuses state appropriations on the classroom

Per LSU’s Legislative Affairs - contact your elected officials today and ask then to support Senator Jackson and allow the funds to be dedicated to higher education.

From the E. J. Ourso College of Business
http://www.bus.lsu.edu/students/news/stories/2009.05.13_LSUCIAStudent.asp?dept=17 

May 18, 2009