Drake: Thank him or not?

Drake's debut album entitled "Thank Me Later" released in early June was a very interesting mix of hip-hop, R&'B, and a splash of emo-esque music styling.

Underneath all the moody lyrics there was a near endless need to find love and a good time. What struck me the most about each and every song was his excessive need to constantly refer to himself. According to pitchfork.com this seemingly self-indulgent rapper said the word "I" 410 times, and if my math is correct that's one pronoun on an average, every 15 seconds in each song… cocky much?

Outside of the endless shout outs to himself the album keeps you interested with its amusing and unique beats that sort of resemble Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreaks. The shear awkward pleasantness of the tracks isn't surprising seeing the list of producers; Timbaland, Kanye West, and Noah 40 Shebib who are known for their out of the box style of laying down beats and track.

However, the only down side to this album was its "hit or miss" lyrics. Compared to his hugely successful mix-tape "So Far Gone" where his lyrics stood out strongly and earned him the respect of many veteran rap all stars, "Thank Me later" failed to have the same impact. Instead of awe inspiring lyrics with substance, they were replaced with a slew of empty and seemingly pointless phrases that just so happen to rhyme and keep beat. In my personal opinion he focused more on having "banging" beats and remember-able hooks instead of meaningful substance behind the market value to hold it altogether.

Not all songs, however, fell pray to this stigma. Fireworks ft. Alicia Keys was a favorite of mine to listen to. The hook complimented the body of song perfectly in a metaphorical fashion. What I do applaud Drake for is the way he avoided the same ole same ole in rapping like idiotic drug use and pointless violence toward his fellow man. When he expressed anything throughout the album it was his want to find, in his journey to superstardom, a good time and someone to share it with.

Overall the album was good but not as good as he has shown us in the past. Maybe he spoiled us with hits like "Best I Ever Had" or my all time Drake favorite "Say What's Real." Don't get me wrong I would definitely add this album to my iTunes, but next time catchy beats will not be enough to carry him on his following up album. If he could just combine the two creative energies in writing and beats from his mix-tape and debut studio album, I'm more than positive he could get a 5 out of 5, but for this one I'll give him a 3 out of 5, a pat on the back, and a try again next time.

The Bottom Line...

Higher education takes yet another cut from the state as an estimated $518.6 million total reduction is projected for the year 2011-2012. An estimated $27.5 million is expected to come from the Southern University System and over half of that will come the Baton Rouge campus.

According to a memo sent out by Chancellor Kofi Lomotey Aug. 26, "The Louisiana Division of Administration has requested that the Board of Regents devise plans to show the specific prioritized effect of state general funds allocated to postsecondary education by approximately 35 percentage for FY 2010-2011."

Although stimulus money is being distributed to every institution they don't cover the amount of funds being cut out overall. The SUBR campus is to receive approximately $11.7 million in stimulus funding, but there is also a projected number of over $15 million in cuts on this campus alone.

President Ronald Mason Jr. has requested a first draft from each campus by Friday. Reductions are to be implemented at three levels. Level one reductions consist of those activities or units not directly related to the core priorities of the university (i.e. museums, galleries, sports activities, etc…). Level two reductions consist of those activities or units that support core priorities but are not directly engaged in delivering the core functions. Level three reductions consists of elimination or reduction of core programs.

"At this point I don't have any information to give and I won't have anything until I meet with all the departments this week," said Lomotey.

Lomotey is asking that all departments specify the targeted area(s) to budget reduction. He wants the departments to identify and describe proposed actions needed to achieve budget reductions. The chancellor is asking each department to indicate how the reductions relate to mission or core priorities as well as describe the cost benefits of implementing the proposed reduction and how they will be achieved. This, hopefully will project how the reductions will impact the university's ability to fulfill its mission.

Cuts add strain to SU

An estimated $4.6 million cut puts an even larger dent in the already strained Southern University budget. According to Chancellor Kofi, Lomotey, SUBR is in an even worse situation than last year and next year will be even worse.

At the start of this year there were already layoffs of at least 27 members of staff and administration. Only one instructor was laid off.

"We are still in the process of trying to balance the budget," said Lomotey. "If what we anticipate occurs next year, which is an $11 million cut, that represents about 50 percent of our non-faculty payroll which would put us in an even worse situation than this year."

Two years ago the state received several million dollars of what was called stimulus money and "gave" Southern $11 million, however, at the same time they took $11 million out of the budget.

"They really didn't give us anything, but in fact they are going to take the $11 million away when the stimulus money runs out," said Lomotey. "Basically they are reducing our budget by $11 million."

Southern was not the only institution where this occurred; all across the state institutions of higher learning were victims of this as well. With SUBR being the largest school in SU system, our cut was the largest out of the estimated $19 million total budget cuts system wide.

"We can't layoff enough people and still be an institution, we are going to have to eliminate some degree programs," commented Lomotey.

Some of the least productive programs are up for consideration, those degree programs with the lowest graduation percentage would be cut out and students currently enrolled in them would have at least a year to seek out other degree programs or different institutional careers. To Lomotey the one degree program that sticks out the most is architecture.

"If I had to make a decision today Architecture would have to go. It is one of the least productive programs with a graduation rate of only 10 percent in three years," Lomotey explained.

There are a number of things taken into consideration when a program has to be eliminated such as graduation rate, retention, number of students that take the classes, and program cost. Last year a self-assessment of all programs, called a program review, was conducted and a committee consisting of staff, administrators, and students looked over these self-assessments to rank each program.

"Architecture didn't fair too well," said Lomotey. "We were going to recommend to the board that architecture be terminated. Ultimately I withdrew that recommendation because I don't want to have close any program down and if the board would have approved that we still would have spent this year trying to find a way to save architecture."

Typically the university would keep the program open only for those students currently enrolled in it, however, the university needs to cut $11 million next year and not over the course of three years.

In all his years as a professional Lomotey claimed that he has never seen such a "financial mess." He feels that this is due to the state not valuing higher education.

"Every time there is a financial challenge they come to higher education and healthcare," said Lomotey.

Mason making transition to SUS

Not-so-smooth sailing for new Southern University System President Ronald Mason, as it has been a hectic transition from Jackson State University to Baton Rouge, apparently more than he thought as he jokingly expressed his disappointed in not getting a small vacation after the abrupt move into the university.

"It was a little more complicated extracting myself from Jackson State than I had anticipated both professionally and personally," Mason said. " Then coming here was a little more urgent than I had anticipated so I didn't have a lot of breathing room in between."

Mason said that he had studied Southern University before coming and made himself knowledgeable of the financial difficulties but really hadn't focused on the Baton Rouge campus' even greater financial situation until arriving. He plans to support each campus chancellors in their endeavors to better the university while implementing certain changes to the system that he hopes will enable them to run more efficiently.

One immediate change were the layoffs of 13 system employees due to sudden job eliminations as well as the replacing of Tolor White, Vice President for Finance of 53 years, with Kevin Appleton, Alcorn State University's current vice president for finance. Appleton will come in making $170 thousand, which is $13 thousand more than what White was being paid and $10 thousand more than what Appleton is making at Alcorn.

"With the job eliminations we were able to save approximately one million dollars so that we could pay him [Appleton] and others more for basically doing more. When he gets here he will be in charge of redesigning the financial structure of the system," Mason said.

This was not the only personnel issue that stuck out, the appointment of former coordinator for student affairs, Brandon Dumas, to deputy chief of staff stood out mainly due to past issues of supplementary funds given to Dumas and others in the system last year.

"Dumas is a good a man and people like him will be needed to help improve the system," Mason said in defense of Dumas, who is the son of board member Walter Dumas.

In conjunction with that Mason said this is a new job and not a promotion of any sort so he [Dumas] will not be getting paid extra to do the same tasks that he was previously doing. Dumas's salary was increased to $60 thousand from $44 thousand.

Mason also wanted to stress the role of the system's office, it doesn't function the same way a chancellor's office would even though it is located on the Baton Rouge campus. His role is to support each individual chancellor and find ways to further the system and not any campus alone.

When asked why the dialogue seemed to convey a sense of disconnect between the system and campuses Mason explained his Five Finger theory to support his function.

"Each campus is a separate finger, my job is make those fingers a hand and then turn that hand into a fist to bring the SU family together to fight through any and every problem," he said.

One very prominent issue are the increased budget cuts that may be ahead for next year. There are plans to cut an estimated 38 percent out of the budget system-wide which according to Mason is "pure insanity." System-wide the budget is approximately $72 million and these cuts would take around $27 million out of that.

"This is a threat to our campuses and we can only hope to react the best way that we can," said Mason. "Now more than ever is the time for SU family to stand up in defense of our fair institution."

Even though there are concerns about Mason not having any ties to Southern University or any Historically Black College he is confident that he is good at what he does and will do whatever it takes for Southern University to improve upon itself.