Beer, online degrees, the elderly and nuclear reactor control rooms are part of Chancellor Michael Martin’s vision for the University’s future.Along with raising traditional funds for the University, Martin has outlined strategies for augmenting, learning and growth at the University as state funding shrinks.Martin said once the University reaches its goal of raising $750 million in the Forever LSU fund, he wants to see the University’s endowment grow from $322 million to $1 billion in the next decade.This is a part of Martin’s plan to reduce the University’s reliance on state funds. He said the University is 58 percent dependent on the state. Martin said the University would be in a sustainable state if funds from the state made up only a third of University funding and the rest were generated from tuition and other income streams.Reducing dependency on the state by such a scale requires fundraising in a traditional sense, but Martin outlined more entrepreneurial goals for growth with dwindling state dollars.PARTNERSHIP FOR HOUSINGThe University is considering entering a public-private partnership to fund graduate housing to replace the Nicholson Apartments, which have reached the end of their use, said Eric Monday, associate vice chancellor for Finance and Administrative Services.University Auxiliary Services Director Jason Tolliver said in one model, the University will acquire a private business partner, which would invest capital to build the facilities. The company would then lease the 35 to 40 acres of land where old Alex Box and Nicholson Apartments sit to recoup the investment by hosting private retailers which would be approved by the University.The final business model hasn’t been decided, but the end result would be a University residential area mixed with private businesses.Monday said utilizing the land with retail partnerships can generate extra revenue to subsidize the projects or student rent.LSU ONLINEMartin wants to increase the University’s online degree offerings in the next couple of years from zero online-exclusive degrees to at least six degrees completely online.”I’m not picking on Phoenix or Kaplan or anyone else,” Martin said. “I am absolutely convinced that people will pay at least as much as they pay to those institutions to be a Tiger and not whatever you are if you go to Kaplan.”College of Engineering Dean Richard Koubek co-chaired a task force that spent the last year assessing the feasibility of taking University classes online.Koubek said the online degrees have to be at least revenue neutral, and historically, they generate profit that can be reinvested in the college. Provost Astrid Merget said the University will target graduate degrees and post-college certificates for master’s degrees in its online expansion.TIGER LAGERMartin also hopes to spread the University’s influence in the art of brewing beer.He said students of the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute at the E.J. Ourso College of Business are developing a tentative business plan for a microbrewery to be housed at Lod Cook Hotel on campus.Martin said the Mockler Beverage Company, an Anheuser-Busch distributor, has signaled interest in a partnership for the brewery.John Finley, chair of the Food Science Department, said the brewery could be profitable. The profits could then benefit the Food Science Department, and students could take a class in brewing at the brewery.UNIVERSITY FOR RENTMartin wants to better utilize equipment and facilities the University already has to generate revenues.One way of doing that is renting out expensive University equipment. He said an agreement in which the University provides use of its expensive equipment, such as a spectrometer, to private companies after 5 p.m., could be profitable to the University.That scenario is only applicable in some cases because of the nature of research and the complexity of the equipment, Martin said.The University needs to make greater use of its facilities such as the PMAC and Tiger Stadium for events, Martin  said.AUGMENTING LEARNINGFollowing the successful integration of Electronic Arts on campus, Martin wants to invite more private companies onto campus to augment student learning.Only companies that add to the educational atmosphere are invited on campus, Martin said.He said a company is considering bringing nuclear engineering and nuclear training tasks to the University. That company would build a nuclear power plant control room simulator to train and certify people. The company would bring attention to the University’s emerging nuclear engineering program, Martin said.  RETIREMENT CAMPUSMartin also hopes following the path of other Universities by building a retirement village on or near campus.He said he has been involved in the development of two similar facilities near other campuses. Martin described the facilities as campuses for retired faculty, staff and alumni and said they were enormously successful.”If people live in a University village once they retire, they are more inclined to put [that university] in their will once they die,” he said. “We are not looking to kill people off. Be careful this doesn’t come off as advocacy for death.”The retirement village can be profitable particularly if it was on University land — for instance, near the golf course — Martin said.He said the University can also benefit from the retired members of such a facility because they often advise students, participate in graduate committees and take classes.–Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]