By Megan Brewer —

Over 45 years of being independent and up to $40,000 to $60,000 in advertising from the president’s and provost’s office ends soon for The Louisville Cardinal.

Under former president James Ramsey, the university overspent, leaving U of L at a $48 million shortfall. This left the university choosing where to cut the budget. TLC is one of these cuts.

After this academic year, TLC won’t receive advertising funding from university administration.

The university making parking prices higher and raising tuition may be unavoidable at this point, but to stop funding a student organization, especially the only newspaper on campus, is alarming.

This move by the administration punishes students for the mistakes of the former president.

If The Cardinal can’t find funding from elsewhere, it could leave U of L as the only ACC school without a student newspaper.

Even if TLC does find funding elsewhere, this decision is a slap in the face for students.

The Cardinal is how the administration can hear students’ voices. It’s also how students receive U of L-related news.

By choosing to stop funding TLC, the university proves it lacks interest in students’ concerns. Instead, students are being put last.

The student newspaper is the best way to get experience in the journalism field. Without The Cardinal or a journalism track at the university, future students may never get this valuable experience.

If the university is choosing not to fund one student-run organization, what other organizations could be cut because of the former administration’s mistakes?

This is not the way U of L needs to go about fixing the budget issues.

Students need to come first, cutting funding to student organizations should be a last resort.

In fact, the administration should be supporting student organizations at all costs.

The U of L administration needs to reevaluate this decision and think about the message they’re sending students. Right now that message is “we don’t care.”

File Photo / The Louisville Cardinal