New Orleans: Students deliver letters of demands to Loyola University President Cole
New Orleans, LA – On Monday February 24, 25 students representing eight student organizations gathered at the office of Loyola University’s President, Dr. Xavier Cole, to deliver a letter that included demands to stop an impending tuition hike, divest from Israeli apartheid, and safeguard the right to free speech. President Cole greeted the students as each representative lined up outside his office and presented him with copies.
Students organized the effort after they learned of the university’s plans to raise tuition by 4.5% in the upcoming 2025-26 school year and cut financial aid by 3%. Loyola also announced it plans to grow the administration by two new vice president positions. Both will receive salaries in the hundreds of thousands, while Loyola faculty are left critically underpaid.
In their letter to President Cole, students pointed out serious problems, including Loyola’s failure to recruit diverse faculty despite the student body being over 50% non-white. A new chapel built on campus, funded by local billionaire Gale Benson, was not built to be accessible for students with disabilities.
Nat Arredondo, a member of Students for Environmental Action (SEA) emphasized, “It is very important for SEA to support this letter, and request that the school divest from oil companies, because of the huge environmental destruction and health issues they cause in the South. But especially Louisiana and Cancer Alley.”
One of the demands stated the need for increased resources and funding for multicultural departments and organizations. “As an executive member of a multicultural club at Loyola, I’ve witnessed how our organization is often pushed to the forefront as a symbol of diversity and inclusion, and used as a pull factor for the school, without receiving the genuine support or funding necessary to thrive,” said Ethan Shairsingh, representing Liberate and Unite New Orleans Students for a Democratic Society.
The student organizations also demanded that the university rescind all institutional sanctions placed on students relating to free speech and protests.