President and CEO of the University’s Alumni Association Cliff Vannoy said there may be a long-term solution to the state deficit—one that won’t harm the University’s budget.
The most obvious solution to the budget cuts is to use the $7 billion in tax credits, discounts and giveaways the state uses as “just-in-case” money to help the business industry, Vannoy said.
“If you have a $1.6 billion shortfall, I think it’s high time we look at what we’re doing on the giveaway program and cut that back,” Vannoy said. “That way we can fill that hole and, rather than cutting people’s jobs and gutting higher education, we should find a way to use some of the revenues we already have out there on the table.”
For every dollar generated by the state, the University generates $5.08 more in economic activity, Vannoy said.
Vannoy said it doesn’t seem logical that the shortfall is so big for an institution that creates such a significant amount of revenue.
He said the LSU community needs to tell the legislators they want something done about the cuts, even if it requires rolling back the tax credits.
University President F. King Alexander called on the University’s three major fundraising organizations—the Alumni Association, Tiger Athletic Foundation and LSU Foundation—to not only seek solutions to budget cuts, but also to rally their members to support the University.
Collectively, the three organizations raised about $425 million for the University during the 2013-14 fiscal year. According to the LSU Foundation website, $330 million came from the LSU Foundation alone.
Together, they are comprised of more than 600,000 alumni and have worked with the University for years to fund new developments and enhance student life.
In February, the Alumni Association created a grassroots campaign, Tiger Advocates, to encourage anyone affiliated with the University to join the fight against budget cuts. Its goal is to serve as a loud and collective voice for the University to communicate with state legislators and ensure it remains one of the nation’s top universities.
Vannoy said students are one of the most crucial aspects in saving the University’s funding. The Alumni Association said they’ve started calling University students “future alumni” to create a stronger voice.
“Don’t you think people will take ‘future alumni’ more seriously than ‘students’?” Vannoy said. “We were all students once… You’re [students] the ones who are paying the tuition. It’s pretty important that you are part of this conversation.”
The Alumni Association’s greatest fear, Vannoy said, is members may stop donating.
Some members will help the University and donate more, but others might stop all together because of hits from the cuts.
“That’s a difficult situation to be in,” Vannoy said about the alumni. “When you have a 40 percent budget cut for a fine institution like LSU, then we’re going to become less and less competitive with the rest of the state and Southeastern Conference. Everybody wants to support a winner, and LSU is a big-time winner in the state of Louisiana.”
Vannoy said he wants students, faculty, alumni, University sports fans and parents all to join Tiger Advocates because they have a stake in the University and understand how vital the threatened funds are.
“Our role, as the alumni association, is trying to get everybody to do something,” Vannoy said. “It could be 50 bucks—just get involved.”
Sara Crow, director of communications and donor relations at the LSU Foundation, said in a statement about the foundation, “Our donors’ generosity is critical to sustaining excellence at LSU, which is why our focus remains supporting LSU through philanthropy. Every day, our team works in close collaboration with LSU to pair the university’s priorities with donors’ passions.”
The LSU Foundation declined further comment.
Vannoy said the Alumni Association, in addition to working with the LSU Foundation to raise awareness about Tiger Advocates, is also working with Student Government and Alexander to spread the word to students
“The more, the better,” Vannoy said. “The more people our legislators see against the cuts, the less willing they’ll be to approve them.”
Rose Velazquez also contributed to this story.

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Emily Brauner

The LSU Alumni Association's national board of directors names Cliff Vannoy as Executive President and Chief Operating Officer of the assocciation.