University administration is planning the new flagship agenda to guide the University through 2020 after the first flagship agenda ends in 2010.Facing economic hardships, the University is looking to diversify its revenue sources to fund the advancements of the next flagship agenda.”Flagship 2010 [the first flagship agenda] was heavily oriented around the inputs we need to be a flagship institution,” said Chancellor Michael Martin. “Flagship 2020 needs to be oriented about the outcomes we want to achieve.”The term “Flagship Agenda” was coined in 2003 for a strategic plan to set goals both academically and financially for the University to meet during the decade. Since then, the University has achieved some of those milestones. “We have made progress on all of them, some more than others,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Astrid Merget. “That is the nature of a goal. A goal is probably never achieved in some senses; otherwise, it is not a goal.”Merget described herself as a “catalyst” in beginning plans for the next agenda.Merget called the first flagship agenda a success because the agenda reached its two “overarching” goals of propelling the University to top tier status and having the University recognized statewide as the flagship institution.Merget said many of the goals from the first flagship agenda will be extended. Currently the University Planning Council (UPC) is comparing the University to peer institutions to decide what exactly the goals will be for things like graduate student enrollment, funding goals and enrollment criteria.”Our original plan [Flagship 2010] didn’t have certain goals that we think are important now,” Merget said. Merget said the new flagship agenda will focus more on international perspectives, civic engagement and physical facilities of the University, all themes that she said were not visited enough in the previous flagship agenda.With the University facing about $25 million in budget cuts for the next fiscal year and a gloomy outlook following the next year, Martin said it is crucial to the success of the flagship agenda to find new ways of producing revenues for the University.”There are very few options left as far as achieving efficiencies,” Martin said. “If we have to cut the budget more, it is going to have a significant negative impact. I think we have to find a way to get new resources to be successful. Where they come from is still an open debate.”Merget said the UPC will discuss the ramifications of increasing enrollment from 27,000 to 32,000 students as a means of increasing revenues.Robert Kuhn, associate vice chancellor of budget and planning, said the challenge of making enrollment increases profitable is the University must first figure out where there is space to expand enrollment without drastically increasing operating costs.One way the University can enroll more students in a cost effective manner is increasing the number of online classes, Kuhn said.Merget also said becoming less reliant on the state by diversifying the University’s revenue sources will be a longterm goal of the new flagship agenda.”We are so dependent on the state that we will boom and bust with them,” Merget said. “We need to do what the other large land grant universities have done and diversify the resources so when there is a cut at the state level it doesn’t destroy the institution’s progress.” Both Kuhn and Merget said it is also vital to continue to build the University’s endowment.”We haven’t tapped our potential donor base. We have started to do that with Forever LSU, and we have built a base and we will continue to grow that,” Merget said.Merget said students can give feedback on the Office of Academic Affairs Web site regarding the goals of the new agenda.Merget will be holding forums in November and December and said the council plans to have a draft of the new agenda by February. At that point, the new agenda will be debated at a series of town hall-style meetings across campus, which will be further edited and presented to the LSU Board of Supervisors in May.Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]