LSU Presidential Finalist F. King Alexander advocated student involvement in the evolution of the University, saying students are invaluable assets on lobbying, education and information fronts in higher education, during a student forum Thursday at the LSU Union Theater.
“I have great faith in Student Government and student leaders,” Alexander said. “They have great ideas that don’t get heard. Nine out of 10 times, when a student tells you something needs to be done on campus, they are right.”
Alexander said students can help the University get ahead in redefining the role of a land grant state university.
“One day other universities will come to us for advice on the impact of a state university,” Alexander said. “I want to work on it with our students, and take students alongside us. Someone will look at LSU 10 years from now as the top benchmark of land grant universities.”
Alexander said he needs to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the University further before proposing specific courses of action, which he said he will do by getting to know the students and faculty.
Student Government President Taylor Cox asked Alexander how he plans to keep students’ tuition money on the Baton Rouge campus, to which Alexander said, “We need to maintain institutional flexibility to creatively solve the problems handed to us. Taking away flexibility equals taking away a university’s ability to get their way out of [a predicament].”
Alexander said the University community can work together to improve Louisiana’s 45th national ranking in higher education.
He discussed renewing the land grant initiative and said LSU needs to elevate itself on successes to be a national model on what the University means to every parish and student in the state.
He said he experienced budget cuts at California State University Long Beach, where he was the president, and had to make admission and hiring decisions based on funding that he would not have done otherwise.
Alexander harped on the importance of modern students’ ability to “build bridges” to governments and businesses to further the impact of the university.
“We hold the key to the next economy and the generation of students on the way,” Alexander said.
He talked about his love for athletics and his college basketball career, adding that university recreation is an important part of the college education.
“The best habits are student health habits,” Alexander said. “The issue of health is drowning state economies. We know the costs of not paying attention to these issues – health of loved ones or ourselves is an economic, personal and societal issue.”
In his closing, Alexander emphasized the importance of student influence and said he looks forward to listening to and learning from students.
“Universities show what students are going to do to shape the future. Great universities offer opportunities for students to expand and learn even outside classroom,” Alexander said. “There is greater benefit of B plus students doing everything than A plus students doing nothing.”
