While the reactions to budget cuts are focused mainly on Nicholls, some people don’t realize the cuts affect more than just the University, faculty, staff and students.Nicholls seems to have a significant impact on the local businesses and community with its over 7,000 students and hundreds of faculty, staff and administration.

“It would definitely affect this store, because most of our business comes from Nicholls,” a manager at Rouses behind Nicholls said. “We can tell when school’s in and out by the amount of customers we have and when our sales start to fluctuate.”

Many of the small, local businesses will undergo significant changes if a 35 percent budget cut occurs.

“A large number of my customers are in Thibodaux and able to shop because they are in some way involved with the Nicholls Statecommunity,”Emily B. Rini, owner of Emily’s Boutique & Something Greek! in downtown Thibodaux. “I fear that if these widespread proposed changes were to be installed, then my business and others around me in the historic downtown Thibodaux area will be grosslyinjured.”

Some of the business owners and managers are also graduates of Nicholls.

“I am a 1985 Nicholls alumnus. As a business owner, real estate agent and a Nicholls graduate,” Angel Bimah said, “I am very saddened to see NSU receiving such drastic budgets cuts for such a small University where other larger universities are not being hit quite as hard. This will not only affect Thibodaux, but the surrounding five parishes, causing not only loss of students, faculty, staff and other essential employee staff but also will affect all parishes’ economy, and after being strongly hit with BP oil crisis.”

Bimah, as well as other owners and managers, questioned what Louisiana’s government is doing, or not doing, with money.

“Where is the lotto money promised to help education? Why do legislatures not take a pay cut to help education? What will happen to this wonderful, big university atmosphere at a small University that supports so many,” Bimah asked.

Many college students often visit the downtown Thibodaux area to drink and hang out at the bars and clubs.

“Budget cuts would be a huge loss for all of the local businesses because of all the students, faculty and staff that support us,” Cecelia Aucoin, manager of Norms Daiquiris, said. “The government needs to reconsider giving higher education money rather than it all going to politicians.”

“The loss of that many students would effect the amount of people that come downtown, therefore, the bars will have less customers and less money coming in,” Lance Brien, manager at The Library and current Nicholls student, said.

Besides lunch and dinner, some students end up at Peppers Pizzeria for their 2 a.m. snack food after being downtown.

“I really think that if the budget cuts affect about 2,000 students at Nicholls, it will slowly kill out the college crowd,” Aaron Troxler, manager at Peppers, said. “A lot of the businesses around here rely on the college crowd, especially the bars and downtown area. We notice during the summer, and when the students are out of school, they’re not in here as much. They might not be out because of the lack of the college atmosphere,”

The impact of budgets cuts has already been seen by local businesses with the smaller cuts at Nicholls over the past two years.

“It’s effected our business in just the last year that we have been open, as far as the faculty and staff that come to eat here,” Jamie Pitre, manager of That Place and former five-year catering director at Nicholls, said.

Pitre said that less students visit and attributes this to the difficulty of going off campus for lunch and dinner as well as the scheduling of classes.

Besides the businesses, the potential budget cuts are affecting high schoolers.

Thibodaux High School offers duel enrollment for seniors, in which students can take courses at Nicholls while attending high school.

Kevin George, principal of Thibodaux High, said that he’s afraid that if Nicholls suffers a 35 percent budget cut, it may not have the staff or classes available for the high school seniors to take.

George also said a lot of the professors at Nicholls have their kids at Thibodaux High. If faculty and staff leave Nicholls and the Thibodaux area to other universities or jobs, they will take their kids with them too.

Right now, high school seniors are making decisions about college. However, Louisiana budget cuts are making it difficult for students to make a final decision on where to attend.

“Unfortunately, they have to come up with a back-up plan. You have to have plan A, B, C and D,” George said. “Students have to know what major they are going for because they have to apply to a school where they know that program will be safe.”

The students who grew up in the Thibodaux and surrounding areas had the choice to stay local and go to Nicholls if they so chose to, George said.

“One thing about the kids growing up around here is that they knew they could count on Nicholls being right here in their own back yard,” George said.

George said that he’s heard the state governor and legislators say that Louisiana has too many colleges.

“Well yes, it’s probably too many if you’re sitting in Baton Rouge. If I live in Lake Charles, Thibodaux or Monroe, no, there are not that many colleges,” George said. “Guess what, I don’t really want to leave where I’ve been born and raised. So, I hope they get this problem fixed.”

If any person or business would like to help raise governor Bobby Jindal’s, as well as other state legislators’, awareness of the effects a 35 percent budget cut would have at Nicholls and in the community by writing a letter or e-mail, a list of their contact information can be found on the Nicholls’ Web site by clicking the “Nicholls. Who cares? YOU should” link.