The Board of Supervisors approved the Academic and Student Affairs Committee’s resolution to standardize bachelor’s degree credits and implement a student tracking system at Friday’s meeting.
Michael Gargano, vice president for Student and Academic Support Services, said some degrees, such as liberal arts, social sciences and engineering, require more than 120 credits for “no rhyme or reason.”
The new resolution will allow individual campus chancellors and staffs to determine whether bachelor’s degree programs could standardize the number of credit hours for a degree at 120 hours.
“It will be less expensive for students and the University,” Gargano said. “We should be able to reduce many degrees by three to six credits.”
The Student Tracking Model will monitor students’ progress toward graduation by using online tracking and in-person adviser sessions.
The tracking system would monitor students’ progress during their first four semesters, notifying both students and advisers when students are not completing critical requirements and are not on track for graduation.
“It will require the University to offer courses in the right sequence so students can graduate on time,” Gargano said. “It will get the campus to take responsibility for student success.”
Both measures will be implemented in fall 2012 on all LSU system campuses.
The Board also approved the implementation of the third year of tuition and fee increases already approved by the Louisiana Legislature for the 2010-2011 academic year.
The “3-4-5 Tuition Plan,” created by the Board of Regents, allows a campus’s tuition within 10 percent of its peers’ tuitions to seek a 3 percent increase in tuition, said John Antolik, chief financial officer for the system.
If the campus’s tuition is between 10.1 and 20 percent of its peers’ tuition, it is authorized to seek a 4 percent increase in tuition. If more than 20, it can seek a 5 percent increase.
Most University campuses are authorized to seek a 5 percent increase, Antolik said.
Kevin Cope, Faculty Senate president, spoke about the state of the University’s retirement options for faculty.
There are two different retirement plans offered for faculty — the Optional Retirement Plan and the Teachers’ Retirement System.
Cope said most institutions have 2.5 to 3 times the University’s state contribution to ORP, and this can serve as a disincentive to stay at or come to the University.
TRS rates are comparable to that of other institutions, but Cope said in 90 percent of cases, ORP is the only reasonable choice for a person who has any academic competition because the plan allows for mobility and is based on contributions — not benefits.
“The longer you stay at LSU, the more you’re going to be slammed by this abuse,” Cope said.
Cope said an increase in contributions would be the easiest solution.
“Some of you might say this is a bad time to start talking about giving out more money, but I have been here 27 years, and there has never been a good time,” Cope said. “So as long as it’s a bad time — and it’s always going to be a bad time — we might as well try to get some good results. ”
Cope said faculty members may not be accountants, but they can recognize when something is wrong.
“If you’re down at the dock, and you see a flagship, a battleship and a rubber ducky going by, you can at least tell the difference,” Cope said. “The Optional Retirement Plan is more in the rubber ducky category than it is in the flagship category.”
Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]