Baton Rouge, LA – On September 14, a coalition of more than seven progressive student organizations at Louisiana State University (LSU) held a press conference to voice sharp opposition to the closing of several cultural centers over summer break. These included the African American Cultural Center, Women’s Center, Latinx Center, LGBTQ+ center, and Multicultural Center.
The press conference was held just hours after students’ representatives from Injustice Reform, Student for a Democratic Society (SDS), Feminists in Action, and the LSU chapter of NAACP met personally with Executive Vice President James Dalton and Senior Vice Chancellor Joseph Messina to discuss their demands. Their meeting was hard-won after students marched on Dalton’s office to demand it and attended a board of supervisors meeting to publicly demand this meeting a second time.
“We went into the meeting to demand that all centers were reopened to their full capacity and original functioning. The reasons stated by James Dalton for these changes were ‘eliminating redundancy and cutting costs,’” said Gabi DeJean of SDS.
After meeting for over two hours, the administration refused to reverse these changes in any way. They also refused to send an email communication to the student body to explain what changes have been made to the cultural centers.
At the press conference, the Queer Graduate Student Alliance explained that the LGBTQ+ center has been closed for over a year now, and that this was one of the last places that LGBTQ students were safe on campus. Feminists in Action explained that LSU’s campus has also lost a lactation room, staffing to support victims of sexual assault, and funding for free Plan B and contraceptives for students.
“LSU cares about Black bodies and Black culture when it comes to football, but they don’t care about Black students who pay tuition to go to school here,” said Laketa Johnson. Johnson is the founder of A Belle La Femme, a nonprofit organization that helps get scholarships for oppressed nationality women in college. She is also a key community leader in the fight against the unconstitutional Louisiana redistricting map released earlier this year. Johnson touched on key parallels between Trump and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry’s agenda and the changes that LSU’s administration is making on campus.
All of the student groups present expressed resolutely that they are opposed to the rollback of DEI and right-wing consolidation.
“We all know that these centers came into being as a result of tireless student protest and public pressure decades before us. So we’re sure as hell not going to let them take it away without that same fight!” said DeJean.
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