GRAMBLING, Louisiana -- Feel the power of the college athlete. Don't believe a group of young men can unite for a cause, stay together and demand change? We don't know how the administration and football staff at Grambling State would have answered that question before this week, but we definitely know the answer now.The Grambling football team capped its weeklong protest of conditions within the program by refusing to get on the buses for Jackson, Miss., on Friday afternoon. The game has been canceled, and the Tigers' impressive show of solidarity continues.
It's a remarkable and perhaps unprecedented show of force, and it has raised so many issues – from facilities to transportation to the very purpose of college athletics – that it's difficult to decide where to start. State funding for the school has been cut 57 percent since 2007-08, according to the school's fundraising literature. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and the state legislature have cut $269 million from higher education since 2009, the year Jindal turned down federal stimulus funds. Grambling lost $6 million, causing the school's Office of Finance and Administration to say the school has gone from "state 'funded'" to "state 'assisted.'"
CONTINUE READING
No comments:
Post a Comment