The Louisiana Board of Regents approved on Thursday a plan to cut 87 higher education programs with low completion rates. After reviewing 36 programs in the LSU System, the Board is terminating or consolidating nine. Currently enrolled students will be able to complete their studies or transfer to another program, said Meg Casper, Board spokeswoman. Chancellor Michael Martin said the Board’s initiative goes hand-in-hand with the University’s recently proposed realignment plan, which would rename and restructure nearly every academic unit on campus. “If we’ve got some programs that have been in decline, maybe it’s time to recognize that,” Martin said. “And just because we like them and just because they have always been here, it doesn’t mean we can afford to keep doing it.”The Board began a review of the “low-completer” programs in January, using data between 2003 and 2008. “We have pledged to do our part to operate in the most efficient and accountable manner possible for our students and for taxpayers in Louisiana,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Sally Clausen in a news release Wednesday. “This is an important step in assessing our entire higher education enterprise so we can continue to demonstrate that colleges and universities are a wise investment in our state’s future.”Under the Board’s plan, programs that should be terminated at LSU A&M in Baton Rouge include the Master of Agriculture, Master of Arts in linguistics, Doctor of Linguistics and the Post-Master Certificate in library and information science. The Board also recommended the Master of Science in horticulture, Doctor of Horticulture, Master of Science in fisheries and Doctor of Wildlife and Fisheries Science be terminated and consolidated with other programs, pending a proposal review. The Master of Arts in art history program should be conditionally maintained, pending review as well. “During these difficult economic times, the state must invest in programs that have a proven track record of student success,” Board of Regents Chairman Artis Terrell said in the release. Martin said the University may debate some of the programs the Board has decided to eliminate.”I don’t believe that [Clausen] and the Regents are going to force us [to terminate] if we have a case,” Martin said. The Board also voted to support a Louisiana Council of Student Body Presidents resolution opposing House Bill 27, which would legalize the concealed carry of firearms on college campuses. Rep. Ernest Wooton, R-Belle Chasse, filed the bill — identical to one he submitted last year — on March 2. The bill was abandoned on the House floor last year after it fell seven votes shy of the 53 needed to pass. The bill is intended to enhance safety on college campuses, where firearms aren’t currently allowed, Wooton has said. Only students, faculty and staff with a concealed-carry license would be allowed to have the firearms under the bill. “While others can express opinions about how safe guns in the hands of students would make us, we must live with the consequences of such opinions,” said Council of Student Body Presidents Chairman Cedric Hampton. “To say the best response to the unfortunate and rare instances of school violence is to place our safety in the hands of college students, rather than trained officers, is equivalent to saying that a Fortune 500 company should be run by a student who has taken first year accounting.” Martin told The Daily Reveille on March 4 he was “perplexed” by the bill. “I have not figured out how having concealed weapons on campus will in any way improve … the safety of a university,” Martin said.——Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]