The Louisiana Legislature passed a bundle of budget bills Thursday, which included funds for faculty pay raises, infrastructure and LSU President William Tate IV’s Pentagon Plan.
For the first time in years, Louisiana is flush with cash due to hundreds of millions in increased state revenues and billions in federal pandemic aid.
After years of belt-tightening, numerous state agencies came to the legislature to get a piece of the pie. LSU was no exception. Tate requested over $100 million for his Pentagon Plan, which lays out his academic priorities in five key areas. 
“Each piece of the Pentagon, we got something,” Tate said.
Pay Raises
While the Board of Regents originally proposed $31 million for faculty pay raises, the Senate amended that to $21 million for raises, slashing the proposed raise by 40%. The Senate also added in funds to recruit faculty for specialty programs, like cancer research.
The budget includes $250,000 for faculty pay raises at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center as well as $2 million for pay raises for “cancer-related” jobs at LSU’s Health Sciences schools in Shreveport and New Orleans.
LSU requested over $30 million to recruit faculty.
Infrastructure
LSU will not be getting any funds this year for its top capital outlay priority, a new interdisciplinary sciences building.
The biggest infrastructure investments in the LSU system will be going to LSU Health Sciences Shreveport, which will be receiving over $28 million for five different projects.
LSU A&M will be receiving $1.5 million for deferred maintenance, a small drop in the bucket compared to the university’s deferred maintenance backlog of over $650 million.
Those funds would go to a project on the university’s priority list, which includes over $30 million in projects for over 40 locations on campus.
A separate $1 million has been approved for updates to the Renewable Natural Resources building, which has been in sore shape since Hurricane Gustav in 2008.
The university is also slated to receive $2 million for the planning and design of the new LSU library.
The current library, which has a host of infrastructure problems, will eventually be demolished and a new library will be constructed in a different area of campus.
LSU Alexandria is in line to receive $1.5 million for its new student success center. Work on the building, which is planned to cost about $10 million, is expected to begin in Fall 2022.
LSU Shreveport is slated to receive $3.5 million for two projects.
Excluding the funds set aside for the Renewable Natural Resources building, the LSU AgCenter is in line for just over $2 million for planning and construction on two projects.
Pentagon Plan and Beyond
The biggest investment for Tate’s priorities is $12.5 million for an Artificial Intelligence Supercomputer. The computer will be shared among the state’s colleges and universities for research purposes.
Also included is $1 million for Tate’s quest to make LSU an National Cancer Institute designated research facility and $5 million for a carbon capture and hydrogen fuel initiative
The university is also slated to receive $5 million for a defense cybersecurity program, for which Tate originally requested about $7 million.
The university lab school is also in line for $300,000, the Athletic Department for $125,000, and the AgCenter for $50,000 for feral hog eradication
Outside of LSU A&M, LSU Health Shreveport will receive $5 million for the Ochsner LSU Health Monroe Medical Center Cancer Center and LSU Health New Orleans will receive $2 million for new dental chairs.
While the university will be significantly shy of that $100 million ask, Tate seems satisfied with what the university is receiving this year.
“We asked for $100 million, which was never going to happen,” Tate said. “I’m taking it as a win. I’m happy we got a faculty raise out of the deal, happy they funded the library planning, happy they gave us money to do our cyber here and in Shreveport.”
While the budget bills still await Gov. John Bel Edwards signature, it’s unlikely that he will pursue line-item vetoes for LSU projects.