Rep. Tanner Magee is tired of the legislature being blamed for the state of the LSU Library. He’s not the only legislator frustrated with LSU.
In the initial weeks of the regular legislative session, lawmakers have publicly vented their frustrations with LSU, sometimes directly to university President William Tate IV.
Much of these legislator’s frustration stems from LSU’s request for over $100 million in extra funds and the priorities in Tate’s pentagon plan, which lays out his plans to prioritize five academic areas.
The Library
Magee, a Houma Republican, emphasized that he is not anti-LSU. He’s a three-time LSU graduate who said he wished he could’ve been married at LSU.
Magee said that he organized a tour of the library for legislators and the governor in 2017 to highlight the gravity of the problem. Despite the high-profile attention, little has been done to improve the state of the decrepit library.
The LSU Library has been in a poor state for many years. Currently, about $30 million worth of deferred maintenance projects are listed on the university’s 7,000 item project list.
LSU has plans to build a new library and tear the current building down. The library is not the university’s top capital outlay priority. Instead, the university is prioritizing a new interdisciplinary sciences building.
Magee said that while the Legislature has consistently granted LSU’s requests for funding, the Legislature continues to take the blame for the Library, despite LSU not prioritizing the library in its funding requests.
This year, the university requested $1.5 million for the design phase of the library in its request. The project is anticipated to cost $50 million in total.
Magee was tired of LSU engaging in backroom deals. That’s why he asked Tate to come to the House Ways and Means Committee on March 22 to discuss the university’s capital outlay requests.
“Because of some students on Twitter, complaining about the library, Rep. Davis and I actually set up a tour for the legislature to go see the library because I thought it was such a pressing need,” Magee said. “Now five years down the line, we haven’t made any progress on that front.”
“And I wouldn’t really put the blame on the legislature to be honest. We’ve always had priority from LSU that was above the library,” Magee said.
When asked by Magee in committee whether the library was the top priority at LSU, Tate said that the science building is a huge priority as the university has already received initial funding for it, but added that the library was a priority as well.
Magee wrapped up his comments by asking Tate to do a better job of engaging with the legislature.
“I hate to say it this way, but frankly like a lot of others do a better job of communicating with legislators than LSU for a lot smaller amount of money,” he said.
North vs. South
In other conversations with committees, Tate has been asked about his prioritization of funding within the LSU system.
Several legislators have raised concerns about the amount of funding going to the main campus in Baton Rouge and the Health Sciences school in New Orleans, versus what goes toward LSU Shreveport and LSU Health Shreveport.
Others have expressed concerns about LSU’s plans taking away from other North Louisiana institutions.
These concerns started to pop up publicly when Tate spoke to the House Appropriations Committee on March 29.
“I was looking over your plan on cyber,” Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Bossier, said. “And I’m a little bit, I guess I would say, in opposition of that because North Louisiana has been fighting for over a decade now to make sure we had the pieces in play to really grow that environment.”
Crews argued that funding the cyber aspects of Tate’s Pentagon plan would take away from the efforts that North Louisiana has been making in that area.
“I agree with many points. The problem is it requires significant physical infrastructure to realize some of your goals,” Crews said. “Right now up in northern Louisiana we already have top secret facilities and we have facilities that have the highest security standards we have.”
Crews is not the only North Louisiana legislator with concerns about Tate’s pentagon plan. Those frustrations continued to boil until a group of North Louisiana representatives took to the House floor on April 5 to condemn Tate’s proposal.
“The new president’s scholarship first plan shows, yet again, a lack of commitment to Northwest Louisiana,” Rep. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, said.
Pressly said in an interview that he made the speech after failed discussions with Tate about Northwest Louisiana’s needs.
Pressly said that following an attempt to merge LSU Shreveport and Louisiana Tech in 2012, LSU officials made commitments that they haven’t followed through with.
“If LSU is going to continue to have two schools in the area, we have to have adequate funding and adequate representation in order to move forward as a community,” Pressly said.
Pressly said that he pointed out to Tate that Shreveport is located near two military installations, which he argued made LSUS a prime location for cybersecurity investments.
“The LSUS campus is located less than five miles from the four star commandant Air Force base with a national plan and national goal of being cyber focused,” Pressly said.
While Tate has said that some funds will go to LSUS, he said that the focus has been on the flagship campus because the faculty that the public sector partners want to work with are located in Baton Rouge.
Several legislators in the Shreveport region attended the most recent LSU Board of Supervisors meeting, which was moved to Shreveport from its original Baton Rouge location. 
“Sometimes I feel like LSU…is Baton Rouge University,” Sen. Barrow Peacock R-Bossier City said. “Y’all really need to have a focus greater than just the flagship.” 
Tate addressed the legislator’s concerns at the meeting. 
“I’m not going to go into an archeological dig of the past,” Tate said. “I don’t really have to own it, I just have to live with it.” 
“We’ve got to work really hard to make sure everybody we touch in our family sees us recognizing them and so I will take that as part of my charge,” Tate said. 
Board of Supervisors Chair Rémy Starns also made comments affirming his support for the Shreveport campuses. 
“Being in Shreveport is not a chore for me,” Starns, who grew up and spent his early career in Northwest Louisiana, said. “I learned a full appreciation for how people in Northwest Louisiana get an idea that they’re not seen as important as other people are in our state. I understand that. It’s not entirely correct.” 
Starns said that the concerns about a lack of funding for the Shreveport campuses goes back to a general disinvestment in higher education. He announced that he willl be holding a higher education summit in August for all Louisiana higher education stakeholders to discuss issues that affect all of the systems.