The students at Nicholls State University raised concern the week of Feb. 15th because of the possibility of the University closing for two to three weeks due to the recent budget cuts to higher education.

Nicholls submitted documents Monday, Feb. 15 to the state giving an idea of how the $70 million in cuts to higher education would impact the University as a whole. The cuts are needed to directly help close the state of Louisiana’s $940 million budget deficit. Even though University President Bruce Murphy made clear that the closure of the University is the very last option, the students began to fear for their education in the near future. For freshmen, does it mean they will have to begin looking elsewhere to obtain their degrees? Does the budget cut mean that seniors will not graduate on time? These are questions that Nicholls students began thinking to themselves during a period of rumors and misconception.

Seniors at Nicholls were initially shocked when social media blew up with headlines claiming the University will close. For senior Jessica Phillips, business administration major from Calhoun, Georgia, she worried not only for her own future but the future of the University she has attended for four years.

“My first reaction was fear for the University,” Phillips said, “but I also feared that I wasn’t going to be able to graduate on time and I thought about all of the time and money I have invested into this school. I would hate to leave this campus without a diploma.”

For international student, senior dietetics major Alyse Barclay from Tauranga, New Zealand, the transition to another university would be particularly difficult.

“My initial reaction was if school closes this semester, what if I won’t be able to graduate?” Barclay said. “It would be so hard to move to a different school for all of the international students, especially the younger ones.”

However, for a freshman, the thought of the University closing was frightening for most. The rumors of everything coming to a halting stop after just getting to a fresh new place worries a first year student, especially if they are from out of state. Freshman Gretchen Morgan, interdisciplinary studies major from Southlake, Texas, was confused with all of the information being thrown onto social media about the school closing.

“I started to think about my sport, the reason I came to Nicholls in the first place,” Morgan said. “As a freshman you do not know what to expect because everything is so new to you, so hearing that the University was closing was pretty frightening.”