While the LSU football team consistently ranks in the top 50 percent of SEC football programs, the University’s endowment programs don’t come near the top 50 percent of SEC endowment funding.
The Aggies, Commodores, Gators, Tigers (the Missouri species), Wildcats, Volunteers, Bulldogs, Razorbacks and yes — even the hated Crimson Tide — rank above the LSU Tigers monetarily in funding for endowments.
Endowments are donations invested in the market to produce income, which in turn pays for student scholarships, professorships and program chairs.
The LSU System has 16 non-profit organizations that invest endowment funds that add up to over $788 million, three of which are dedicated to LSU in Baton Rouge: the LSU Foundation, the Tiger Athletic Foundation and the LSU Alumni Association.
Vanderbilt University collects over four times and the Texas A&M University System collects over eleven times as much as the entire LSU System.
If SEC school endowment funds are a competition, LSU is losing badly.
With such low comparable endowment funds, LSU alumni seem as capricious toward supporting the University as our football fans are capricious toward Les Miles.
According to LSU’s report on affordability, University graduates earn 15 percent more than their competitors, and the University’s alumni mid-career average earnings rank 34th out of 167 public research universities surveyed.
Many University graduates do well post-graduation but forget the institution that cultivated the skills and knowledge they utilize in their careers. The alma mater’s words “Forever LSU” are not a call for never-ending support for our sports programs, but for the University as a whole.
A good portion of the $788 million is part of TAF’s endowment funds. Some of that money goes to providing scholarships for non-athlete students, but most of it goes to athletic facilities and the other needs of the athletic department, which receives no state funding.
The academic side of LSU needs more funding and TAF cannot simply move over additional funds to help, because of the athletic department’s self-sufficiency and dependency on private donations that go through TAF.
In the face of budget cuts that will gut state funding to the University by 82 percent if — Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive budget fails to pass the legislature — LSU alumni need to remember the institution they love so dearly. Alumni can help current students have the same career opportunities as graduates in the past by donating to an endowment fund.
If matching an endowment fund’s minimum donation is financially impossible, look for other LSU alumni and pool money together to meet the requirement. Endowments are a gift that never stops giving, unlike one-time donations.
With budget cuts, instructors at the University are in danger, and as I have previously written, instructors are the bane of a student’s education.
Because of state law, roughly 50 percent of LSU’s budget consists of restricted funds that the Board of Supervisors cannot cut. That leaves education and student support centers up on the executioner’s block, which prompts the board to cut LSU’s instructors.
For the most part, they have no choice. They cannot target tenured professors and student support centers are not popular areas to cut. What the LSU Board of Supervisors can do, however, is fundraise.
With the Board of Supervisors leading the charge, the LSU Foundation, TAF and the Alumni Association need to band together and begin a fundraising effort to create an endowment fund focused on protecting instructors in times of budget cuts.
A large enough endowment with millions of dollars from extensive fundraising could produce revenues capable of saving a considerable portion of the faculty in jeopardy of losing their jobs. The foundations would only use the income from the fund during times of budgetary crisis.
In times where the budget is not in crisis, a small percentage of the income from the endowments could go toward funding additional teacher training and classroom supplies.
Endowments cannot replace the money lost from the state, but they can help the University retain a good portion of its faculty and other important student resources.
According to LSU Director of External Affairs Jason Droddy, the original estimate of cutting 27 percent of LSU faculty positions and 1,400 classes derived from an assumed 35 percent cut to state funding.
Using the Board of Supervisor’s previous ratio for job cuts, an 82 percent cut to LSU’s state funding results in an approximate cut of 63 percent of LSU faculty members.
The University would never allow an 82 percent cut resulting in such a large percentage of teachers losing their jobs.
However, the numbers offer a startling wake up call. The future is not looking so bright, and if the 82 percent cut becomes reality, LSU will need its alumni more than ever.
Justin DiCharia is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Slidell, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @JDiCharia.