Brandishing Budget Power, State Lawmakers Pressure Public Universities - Adrienne Lu, Stateline

A student from the University of South Carolina Upstate signs a banner protesting the State lawmakers around the country are brandishing their budget pens to penalize public colleges and universities for what they teach, what their professors say and which organizations the schools work with. In South Carolina, lawmakers are threatening to cut funding from two public colleges where incoming first-year students were asked to read books that discuss homosexuality. After legislators criticized an unrelated symposium on gay and lesbian studies at one of the two universities, the University of South Carolina Upstate earlier this month canceled a comic performance titled “How to Be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less.” Some lawmakers have pledged to cut even more money from the second institution, the College of Charleston, after it hosted a musical based on the book students were asked to read http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/brandishing-budget-power-state-lawmakers-pressure-public-universities-85899544249