After releasing the Faculty Senate Newsletter on May 30, Kevin Cope took time to speak with The Daily Reveille about some issues the Faculty Senate is keeping an eye on during the summer term.
The Daily Reveille: With the school year completed and the summer term beginning, what are some issues that the Faculty Senate is concerned about?
Kevin Cope: “The number one issue that the Faculty Senate is concerned about is the budget and financing of the University. Another problem that presents itself is starting the searches for the various executive positions that have not been filled or that may come open in forthcoming years. … A third matter is looking forward to getting started with a new provost and seeing what will happen with the chancellor’s office and making sure that if there is a search for another chancellor it follows procedure. The last item is that as we look to the forthcoming year and to some probable cuts in higher education, reaching out to the other campuses around the state and re-establishing LSU as a leader and not a competitor among Louisiana universities.”
TDR: There are several administrative positions that aren’t filled. We have the LSU System President and the LSU Chancellor as the most prominent two. In your opinion and the Faculty Senate’s opinion, how does the University need to go about finding qualified candidates to fill these positions?
Cope: “On June 8, everyone expects that the LSU System will vote to establish William Jenkins as the interim chancellor of the LSU System. During that period, we will need to enter into a dialogue as to if we will continue to have a separate chancellor on this campus or whether we will merge the two offices of System President and Chancellor. … I think that before LSU starts preaching to other institutions about how to reconfigure or reorganize and meddles in matters with Louisiana Tech or in Shreveport, it needs to think about what kind of institution it, itself, might be. Either way, we need to make a deliberate effort to make sure we make the right decision rather than rushing to find someone.”
TDR: You mentioned Bill Jenkins becoming both the System President and Chancellor on June 8. What are your thoughts on merging those two positions permanently?
Cope: “I am not adverse to the idea. I think there is much to say for it on two grounds. One is that it would diminish the animosity, on one hand, between the LSU flagship campus and the other campuses. It would also provide a means of which the universities could begin to ally themselves functionally as well as administratively. … To date, the administrative problems that the LSU System has encountered results largely from the fact that they are together administratively under the LSU System office, but do not have clear channels of communication. So, I think that option might produce a good result.”
TDR: In the most recent Faculty Senate Newsletter, you wrote about the athletic department and sports revenue. How do you believe the revenue from sports should be handled?
Cope: “I touched on two things. First of all, I criticized the revenue sharing pools in the leagues, in the case of LSU, it is the SEC. … A little bit more goes to the winners, but it is basically divided equally. The theory is that this will stabilize the revenue stream over time. However, I don’t believe that the schools that have winning records or big sport programs benefit from this. Over time, I think we will find that more money is going from us to Starkville or to Vanderbilt. The other thing, I don’t know if I mentioned it in the article or not, but I think we should push ticket prices much further up. It would help people realize what it costs to maintain a university that in turn gives the athletic program credibility. Without the University, there is no sports program.”
TDR: Do you think that it is the athletic department’s responsibility, especially in such a difficult economic time, to contribute more money to the University? You said that without the school there is no athletic program.
Cope: I think it is the responsibility of the leadership on campus to tell them what the ticket pricing system should be. I don’t want to lay this on the athletic department more than anyone else is. There are plenty of people on the campus that are throwing in their two cents and some not even that much in order to influence the ticket pricing. The athletic department is only the machine that implements the policy. I think the word has to come down from the central administration on campus to throw another $20 on everyone’s ticket prices. I think students won’t be happy about it. … But the students will especially not like it if we have to start closing down departments on campus. At least they will have a few extra bucks in their pockets.
 
____ Contact Joshua Bergeron at [email protected]