The University is bracing to endure a 29.8 percent drop in enrollment if it’s forced to cut $71.9 million from its budget next fiscal year, according to documents obtained by The Daily Reveille.And an apparent difference between the University and the LSU System’s approaches to dealing with the cuts has been a sticking point between the two since the beginning of the year.An estimated 8,500 students may leave the University if state funding is cut by 30 percent next fiscal year.This figure — among others like hikes in tuition and student fees — was not included in the LSU System’s “budget reduction exercise” released Feb. 4. “We’ve tried to minimize any discussion of enrollment loss and avoid too much focus on alternative sources of revenue,” LSU System President John Lombardi told Chancellor Michael Martin in a Jan. 29 e-mail obtained by The Daily Reveille. “Those issues are likely to prompt questions we’re not ready to answer given the variable nature of the budget conversations at the present time.”  With a projected cut in higher education state funding between $212 million and $382 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1, the Division of Administration asked Lombardi to complete a “budget reduction exercise” showing what a cut of up to 30 percent in funding would mean for the System. Administrators at the 11 institutions compiled their own budget scenarios to submit to the System office, where they were compiled into one “budget reduction exercise” and submitted to the Division of Administration. Records show several differences between what the University submitted and what was shown in the System’s exercise. “I think [the System’s budget reduction exercise] made as good of a case as it could [for the University],” Martin told The Daily Reveille on Wednesday. “I understand that we have other units within the System that have to be represented as well.”Lombardi declined an interview, through System Spokesman Charles Zewe, about the differences between the budget scenarios. Martin said University officials focused more on finding possible solutions for a cut of up to 30 percent while the System’s interests lay in displaying what an across-the-board cut of 30 percent would look like for the System. Lombardi said in the same e-mail to Martin that some suggested the System use the newly created — but not yet finalized — Board of Regents’ performance-based funding formula to distribute the budget reduction in the exercise. Others suggested the System distribute the reduction based on the amount of extra funding available to a campus or unit, like tuition. “We resisted all these notions on the grounds that none of them seemed either wise or fair,” Lombardi said in the e-mail. “And we believed they would have significant negative effects for different campuses depending on how such differential distributions were calculated. While a more complicated method for distributing the reduction might have been possible, we didn’t think it worth the effort to try and resolve that.”Including the now permanent $10.3 million in mid-year budget cuts, LSU’s main campus in Baton Rouge would see a total budget reduction of about $71.9 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1 if state funds were cut by 30 percent. The System as a whole would see about $208.8 million in cuts under this worse-case scenario.Whether the budget reduction will be handled in an across-the-board or performance-based fashion won’t be determined until more is known about the state’s budget, Martin said. Gov. Bobby Jindal will submit his executive budget with proposed cuts March 13 to the Legislature. Martin said he is confident in Lombardi to choose the right path for the University and it’s too early in the process to predict exactly how the budget cuts will unfold. “I don’t think any of us will know the full impact until we get that final number,” Martin said. Martin said it is important to remember the University is a land-grant, high research, top-tier institution. “I don’t think you can treat every institution in the state the same,” Martin said. Besides an estimated student loss of 8,500 — including 2,250, or about half, the minority student population — other elements were discussed in the University’s budget scenario that were omitted from the System’s final draft. For instance, the Bengal Legacy Scholarships for non-resident sons and daughters of LSU graduates, the Board of Supervisors scholarships and the Louisiana Freshman Merit Award would be eliminated under worst-case scenario cuts, according to the University’s budget exercise. “The cutting of any scholarship will have a detrimental impact on students eligible for the awards and may have a negative impact on enrollment,” the document states. Merit increases for faculty, administrative and professional staff would also be “out of the question.”With a large budget reduction, closing academic colleges is likely.”To reach this [30 percent] level of a cut, more than one large college must be eliminated because of the corresponding loss of tuition revenue,” the document states. Martin also suggested to Lombardi the idea of an involuntary furlough for faculty and staff. While other colleges are making similar decisions, the Louisiana Board of Regents restricts the furloughing of faculty without declaring financial exigency for the unit involved — a path University and System officials are cautious to explore.Martin said he is not suggesting the University enforce a furlough, but that it is a question of “could this happen.” The issue of furloughing will not turn into a question of “should this happen” or “will this happen” until the University knows the full extent of the budget cuts later this spring. A policy change would also be required to enforce a furlough for faculty. —-Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]