BATON ROUGE - Normal operations at Southern University will resume on Tuesday morning after another power outage canceled classes on Monday; it was the second disruption this month.

The lights were on at the Capitol on Monday as Southern's interim president, Orlando McMeans, once again made a plea to make up for what he calls "decades of under-funding."

McMeans believes a one-time investment of $19 million would go a long way towards recruiting more TOPS-eligible students, installing security cameras and lighting on campus, and updating Southern's outdated IT infrastructure and research laboratories' security.

In the meantime, Monday's power outage was just one of several issues students brought up to WBRZ. One of these is the need for better access to technology.

"I was in the library when this happened. I was actually in a Zoom class, and I was also trying to make sure that I finished up some work, trying to get done with a presentation," Southern student Liberty Conner said

A half dozen Southern students told WBRZ that this is not the first or even second time the power has gone out at Southern this school year.

"It's definitely concerning because it's very consistent, and I know, like for other students, it's kind of very hard because sometimes they'll either have trouble trying to find out what they're going to eat or if they have to go to class."

Over the past week, Southern leadership has been meeting with the state legislature about receiving more funding.

Southern student Angelina Lugo agrees that money should go towards things like technology and suggests housing as another option.

"It should be placed into student needs for getting networking for power, sophisticated needs such as making sure that students have housing, and power for WiFi," Lugo said.

Several Southern students say that the money Southern already has is not going towards what would help students the most.

"They're not prioritizing the students' education more than the athletics," Southern Student Brianna Casey said.

"My shower is like really, really cold. That's one of the things that's like really cold because we pay all this money, and my shower is really cold, and then the power outage. It's a lot," Southern student Shelby Green said.

Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry says they do not have that type of one-time money for anyone at this stage, and it might not be something they can address this session.