The university announced recently that it had received a $245 million gift from two Louisiana-based hospital systems, LCMC Health and Our Lady of the Lake. This donation was billed by the university as the largest gift in its history.
Philanthropy plays an ever-increasing role in the funding of public institutions of higher education, especially in Louisiana. An article from the Reveille in 2021 noted that “Louisiana’s state-spending per student dropped 37.7%, the second largest decrease of any state” in the years following the Great Recession.
Philanthropic donations help fund everything from scholarships to campus infrastructure, and there is never enough to go around. But certainly the largest donation in the university’s history would have a real, tangible impact on the student experience, right?
Well, it seems to be a mixed bag.
In the university’s breakdown of the donation, they lay out a highly restricted, structured gift spread over 10 years, which breaks from usual pledge terms traditionally ranging anywhere from one to five years.
The gift provides private matching funds for the university to make a strong case for the new interdisciplinary science building to be included in the Legislature’s annual capital outlay plan. Construction is expected to begin on the building later this year and conclude by the fall 2024 semester.
It also provides $40 million to “develop an end-to-end healthcare experience within the LSU Student Health Center and provide in-kind care to uninsured and underinsured LSU students”—something that is desperately needed, as emphasized in a Reveille column earlier this semester. This portion of the gift is being distributed to the university in yearly $3 million portions over the next decade.
However, philanthropy is often self-serving, and this gift is no different considering that a vast majority of the donation from these two health systems will eventually flow straight back to their coffers. LCMC Health and OLOL are both structured as non-profits, but that distinction is minimal at best in the realm of healthcare.
The return on investment for these healthcare systems will come in a multitude of different ways: Referrals from the SHC, grants from the National Cancer Institute designation the university is pursuing and investment in training the next generation of medical professionals are just a few examples.
This is not to say that the gift is a loss for the university, but the messaging behind the donation has been misleading. Though this is categorized as a philanthropic donation, it is, in reality, a down payment from LCMC Health and OLOL to increase their bottom lines, not university outcomes.
If the funds from this gift are used correctly, students will benefit from this investment. But, despite the university’s messaging of a transformational gift, that is not guaranteed. This was not structured as a philanthropic donation, but merely a business proposition with the flagship as a partner.
Charlie Stephens is a 21-year-old political communication junior from Baton Rouge.
