Financial exigency can seriously tarnish the credibility of a university, and in the past, Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope has said it would take “draconian” budget cuts to push LSU to that breaking point. But those cuts could be coming rapidly.
A $97.6 million budget slice to the LSU System is rolling through the hands of lawmakers in the state, who plan to compensate for Louisiana’s budget shortfall by handing down massive cuts to higher education instead of seeking one-time funds. The cut to the University itself would be about $43 million.
Chancellor Michael Martin wrote about the gravity of the situation in a memo to newly-appointed LSU System President William Jenkins.
“Declaring financial exigency is a last resort of a genuine crisis. Still, under the Board of Supervisors definition of exigency, the campus may have qualified for a declaration already,” the chancellor wrote. “Once exigency is implemented, several colleges will have to be closed and LSU will be forever different.  This is a generational decision; it would take decades to repair the damage done to our students, faculty, and reputation.” 
The University’s Baton Rouge neighbor, Southern University, declared financial exigency in October.
The University’s cuts could manifest themselves in the elimination of major academic units and adverse effects on research and mission-specific services. Additionally, the cuts could offset the revenue the University takes in from increased tuition through the LA Grad Act, according to an LSU System news release.
“While we hope none of these cuts become a reality, the truth is that if the legislature doesn’t reconsider these reductions, we could be forced to quickly impose a series of appalling cuts to our institutions, without the kind of careful planning and deliberation that takes into account the long-range consequences of such radical actions,” Jenkins said in the release.
The cuts to the LSU System as a whole could lay off around 645 employees and furlough 646 others.  LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport would no longer be operational and would be forced to shut down with such a drastic decrease in state appropriations and the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans could lose its nursing school.
In October, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jack Hamilton gave deans the go-ahead to extend contracts for instructors, who were issued termination notices every semester because of previous budget cuts.
“I’m hoping if there are cuts, it won’t be so bad that we regret this decision,” Hamilton said at the time.
Around the same time, the University’s administration said faculty pay raises were their top priority for next year, as faculty have gone four years without raises. Part of that plan was contingent on the University not taking a midyear cut, but the University absorbed a budget slash of $8.1 million at the midyear.
All of this is happening amid a whirlwind of administrative turnover at the University. The Board of Supervisors ousted John Lombardi, the LSU System President, about three weeks ago and Colorado State University offered Martin their chancellor position only last week. Hamilton is stepping down as provost and Stuart Bell, the dean of the University of Kansas’ School of Engineering, will replace him come August pending Board of Supervisors approval.
Martin has said if he accepts the job in Colorado, he will help to make LSU financially stable before his departure.
 
—- Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]