The LSU Board of Supervisors approved two resolutions Friday, urging the Louisiana State Legislature to turn over tuition and fee authority, as well as other administrative autonomies, to higher education governing boards.
Without discussion, the Board also approved April 1, 2015 as the official realignment date of the Paul M. Hebert Law Center to the main campus.
“Our important child that ran away in 1977 has come home,” said LSU President F. King Alexander. “It’s been officially approved by SACS in the national spotlight, as well.”
SACS refers to the accrediting body for southern colleges and universities.
Though Alexander said a “worst case scenario” would entail an 86 percent cut to higher education, some members of the Board said they remain optimistic.
“Our team has been working tirelessly to educate the legislature and the governor and help look for some solutions,” said Board member Hank Danos.
Although the state’s executive budget includes a $70 million increase in self-generated funds by the University, the Board hopes the greater flexibility in autonomy will raise revenue to $113 million.
The Board held tuition and fee authority for 135 years before it moved to the legislature in 1995.
Proposed by Scott Ballard, chairman of the Finance, Infrastructure and Core Development Committee, the resolution requests that oversight of tuition and fees return to the Board “without qualification, condition or indexing.”
“We cannot continue to put our destiny in government’s hands,” said Board member Rolfe McCollister.
The second resolution supports the expansion of administrative autonomies to public universities and asks the legislature to expand autonomies listed in the LA GRAD Act.
Ballard said every Board member had been in contact with their local legislators, who are in full support of halting the cuts to higher education.
But Alexander said timing is the biggest roadblock to the University’s financial security.
The University is currently hiring WISE-funded faculty, and students are signing up for courses for next semester before budget numbers are in.
“We’re taking as much risk as possible,” Alexander said. “Assuming that we will get the help from our legislative leadership and ultimately the governor’s office.”
Ballard and other Board members echoed Alexander’s concern.
“From a timing perspective, you can’t take optimism and make exact decisions,” Ballard said.
But public comments were less positive than Board discussion. An instructor and an alumnus stressed the effects of budget cuts on instructors and the University’s national reputation.
English instructor William Torrey said he and his fiancée, who works in the Ogden Honors College, are facing their first year of marriage with no job security.
“We teach double the load of professors with half the pay,” Torrey said. “I hope you’ll remember what you’re running is a school and not a brand or a business.”
Alumnus and local attorney Donald Hodge criticized the Board and said members’ support for Gov. Bobby Jindal allowed the state to get into its current fiscal situation. But Ballard said later this was not a political issue.
“Unless the legislature finds a way to get a stream of income into higher education,” said Board member Stanley Jacobs, “we will be perpetually in this situation.”