Now is the time for our voices to be heard

“They slowly silence us.” That’s what mass communication major Chelsea Jackson took to Facebook to say upon hearing about the administration’s decision to defund the yearbook without student opinion.

Well, students…you should not be silenced. This problem is much bigger than the yearbook. It is our rights as students of Nicholls State University being taken away.

Students will not be saving any money because of this change. Instead, we are getting our precious memories that are made throughout our time here ripped away. It is not acceptable for our university to go behind our backs and decide to get rid of a yearbook students have been producing for 69 years, much less rob us of the money that was accumulated solely to produce it.

Students were notified less than 24 hours before the Board was set to make the decision, even though the university had submitted paperwork to the Board approximately three weeks prior. This is unacceptable. Some of these students may lose their jobs. Notifying them after the fact is completely unethical.

Instead of asking students if they want a yearbook, the university decided for us. Instead of surveying us, asking if a yearbook matters to us, they assumed. Instead of asking us what we wanted our money to go to, the administration decided to steal nearly half a million dollars of student’s money to be put towards a general operating fund, and the University President decides what it will be used for.

But we aren’t giving up. It may seem that the decision has already been made, but it is far from over. The Nicholls Student Government Association is partnering with Student Publications to give students a voice. Make sure your voice is heard.

If the university is defunding the yearbook now, what is the next campus organization the administration will take away? To keep this hardship from happening again, students need to let their voices be heard. We have the constitution on our side. We have the right to have a peaceful protest. The time is now to make your voices heard to stop the University from taking money without student input.

Our administration recognizes its students as paying customers. Well, in most cases, the customer is always right. Nicholls students have rights and a say in what they are paying for, so it should not be up to a money-hungry administration or the University of Louisiana System to decide. We have a voice and even though one voice might make only a ripple, a hundred voices will make a wave.