The LSU Alumni Association is stepping up its efforts to try to stave off looming budget cuts to higher education that could reach as high as $400 million. On Wednesday, the association launched a new website and grassroots effort, calling on all of Tiger Nation to contact their elected representatives and push for workable solutions to the budget crisis.
“We’ve always done this throughout the years, but it was the old-fashioned telephone tree where one person calls three and those three call three more. It was that sort of thing all over the whole state of Louisiana,” says LSU Alumni Association President and CEO Cliff Vannoy. “Well, this is the same thing, but it’s much more sophisticated.”
As soon as someone signs up on the new website, Vannoy says, they will receive information about their elected representatives and how best to contact them. The website will be updated with news on pertinent legislative issues and those who sign up will receive updates and calls for action.
“We want to keep people educated and informed about the issues so there isn’t any knee-jerk reactions,” Vannoy says. “We want everyone who loves LSU to keep themselves educated on what’s happening and when it’s time to take action, we’ll put out the call to let them know how they can help.”
Vannoy says he’s already in contact with the LSU Student Union to help promote the effort among current LSU students—whom Vannoy prefers to call “future alumni”—as well as with former students.
“I think it’s going to be a home run for LSU and higher education,” Vannoy says of the grassroots effort. “We’ve kind of been taking the back seat, but it’s now time for us to be in the driver’s seat.” Check out the website.
—Steve Sanoski
