NEWS
Who got gov’t Gulf work?
SPORTS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
UAM throttles Southern. pG. 5
Lady Gaga wins 8 VMAs. pG. 6
West, swift live up to hype
Weevils “boll” over jaguars
Contracts doled out to groups pG. 3
estABLished in 1928
WWW.SOUTHERNDIGEST.COM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2010
VOL. 56, ISSUE 6
SU chancellor grilled over drop By norman j. Dotson jr. diGest editor-iN-cHieF
“Big footsteps to walk in,” is the task that Chancellor Kofi Lomotey has in front of him according to Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Clayton at Friday’s board meeting. With enrollment increasing at Southern-New Orleans and projected growth at SouthernShreveport, SUBR is the only campus throughout the system failing to make progress. Some board members attribute this drop in enrollment at the system’s flagship school to its leadership. According to media reports, SUBR’s fall enrollment is 300 students less than the enrollment this time a year ago. Lomotey pointed to statewide budget cuts to higher education, along with concerns from potential students about tougher admission
standards as the reason for the four-percent dip. “I must express my absolute disgust in the fact that you (Lomotey) have been here three years sir and we have seen no improvement in this one particular area,” said board member Pat McGee. “Without students, we cannot survive. Whenever I engage young African American kids I ask them if they have considered Southern and it’s amazing how many college aged kids say no.” Even though Lomotey and his team have come up with partnership deals with schools in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, many board members feel that this just isn’t enough. However, Clayton felt that with the limited amount of financial resources entitled to him, Lomotey is doing the best he can do for the campus. “We don’t have any money.
DiGest file photo
sUBr chancellor Kofi Lomotey took some heat during Friday’s sU Board of supervisors meeting as the board discussed sUBr’s 300-student enrollment drop.
Money just isn’t flowing the way it used to flow,” said Clayton. “We have to look at the big picture here, we have to start from the top, and we have start giving and giving and raising money to help support these
campuses. So there isn’t one person we can point the finger to in this situation.” Southern decided against tightening admission standards this fall at the last minute. Lomotey said those increases
will go into effect next fall instead to give high school students and their parents more time to prepare. Fewer employees in financial aid, admissions and recruiting offices also have hurt, he said.
BP claim czar considers making key concession By harry r. WeBer associated press writer
HOUMA, La. — The administrator of the $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill said Monday he might waive the current requirement that wages earned from helping out in the cleanup be subtracted from people’s spill claims. Doing so would be a key concession following strong criticism from residents about the claims process. Meanwhile Monday, BP crews resumed drilling the final 50 feet of a relief well meant to allow them to permanently seal the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico. John Wright, who’s leading drilling efforts aboard the Development Driller III vessel, told The Associated Press in an e-mail that the operation had resumed. BP said crews started drilling at 1:40 p.m. CDT. BP and the government have said it would take about four days from the time crews started
PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH
drilling again to intersect the blown-out well. Once the relief well intersects the blown-out well, crews will pump in mud and cement to permanently seal the well. At the town hall meeting in Houma, La., fund czar Kenneth Feinberg told hundreds of people who packed a convention center that he is reconsidering the requirement that cleanup wages be subtracted from claims. He said he understands the loud concerns raised by people who are still hurting. “I’m taking it under advisement,” Feinberg said. “The last time I said, no way, I’m deducting it. Now, it’s open for discussion.” The April 20 rig explosion killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP PLC’s undersea well into the Gulf of Mexico. The flow of crude was first stopped by a cap placed atop the well in midJuly. Glenn Poche, a 61-year-old shrimper from Lafitte, La., said
92° | 70° LOW
INSIDE S O U T H E R N
after the town hall meeting with Feinberg that he felt like he had more questions than answers about why he only received a $600 emergency payment for six months. He said he was making thousands each month from his business before the waters he worked in were shut down because of the spill. “He gave me $3.30 a day to live on,” Poche said. “I can’t pay my bills.” Like other people at the forum, Poche said he believes it is unfair for claims evaluators to give payments based on 2009 wages when shrimp prices were lower last year than they have been in 2010. Feinberg told those gathered that several types of financial documents could be used to show income, not just 2009 tax returns. Feinberg also said he would consider giving people in certain situations a supplemental payment after their emergency payment. Currently, people are getting an emergency payment and then, down the road, a lump-
sum final payment. The final payment requires recipients agree not to sue BP. “I will come back again and again to face the music, hear the criticisms, listen to the concerns,” Feinberg said. One after another, shrimpers, boat workers and other victims came up to a microphone and yelled their demands at Feinberg. Some cursed. Others shouted insults. Their concerns included the slow payment process, the fact that some people in similar situations are receiving vastly different payments and the bureaucracy they have to go through to get their money. Feinberg said the fund has paid out $150 million since he took over processing claims three weeks ago. Before that, BP was in charge of paying out claims, and it paid nearly $400 million. Feinberg said his team hoped to finish processing remaining emergency payments in the next 30 days.
As of Monday, there were roughly 12,000 claims for emergency payments that have proper documentation that have yet to be paid, Feinberg said. Another 12,000 unpaid claims have inadequate documents. Five hundred claims filed are ineligible for money from the fund because they deal with impact from the oil drilling moratorium, while roughly 1,000 claims appear to be fraudulent, Feinberg said. “I am doing the best I can,” Feinberg said, as the crowd grew louder. “And if the best is not good enough, I am sorry.” Later, when Feinberg said there were many people who still wanted to ask questions and he had only 10 minutes left to address them, one woman, in tears, shouted: “We have the rest of our lives.” Feinberg told The Associated Press after the event that within the next week to 10 days, Gulf residents will have another key question answered: How much he is earning for his services.
CAMPUS BRIEFS...............2 STATE & NATION................4 A & E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 NEWS.............................3 SPORTS......................5 VIEWPOINTS......................7 U N I V E R S I T Y ,
B A T O N
R O U G E ,
L A .