A University of Louisiana at Lafayette professor emerita of English has started an online petition to urge state lawmakers to restore funding to the state’s public universities. Ann Dobie has gathered nearly 2,000 signatures through her petition on the site signon.org. She hopes the petition is a wake-up call to lawmakers that higher education budget cuts have far reaching consequences.
“I thought that there must be other people out there who feel the same way I do," Dobie said. "But how was I to reach them? How could I find them? This seemed to be the easiest way to muster some support for a movement to support our universities."
Dobie said she’ll take down the petition once the number of new signatures tapers off. She plans to mail the petition to Louisiana legislators and the governor.