As the University pools together various resources, the 2014-2015 operating budget shows the LSU System is dependent on tuition, said Vice President for Finance and Administration Dan Layzell.
The LSU Board of Supervisors approved the budget for this fiscal year on Friday, totaling more than $1.1 billion, down about 7 percent from last year.
The largest piece of revenues for the system comes from students. Layzell said the trend of having tuition as the largest revenue source is a growing pattern in higher education in last several years.
Layzell said the University needs tuition dollars for students to keep going.
He said the University’s largest portion of expenditures is faculty and staff salaries and wages.
The LSU System received roughly $14 million in additional funding as its share of the Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy Fund, which goes toward education in high-demand fields.
The WISE Fund, signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal in June, is part of an effort to align higher education with the state economy by matching higher education funding to high-demand jobs.
The funding will be distributed to University programs based on WISE Fund implementation plans created in the last several months. However, they must obtain approval from the Board of Regents before using the funds.
State funding this year decreased because of the privatization of several LSU hospitals. The LSU System transferred management of hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe to private foundations last year.
The budget also included a three percent pay raise for University faculty and staff as a follow-up to last year’s four percent raises.
LSU President F. King Alexander said the national average of salary increase for university faculty is two percent, but he would love to be able to continue raising salaries with the momentum from the past two years.
Alexander said before last year’s pay raises, the University’s faculty were earning about 13 percent less than their peers. Since the raises, faculty are now about 11 percent behind.
The University was behind other similar schools in funding and faculty salaries, but it has lower student indebtedness and higher career earnings. Alexander said the University is “doing more with less.”