Chancellor Michael Martin addressed the University’s state of financial stress to a crowd of more than 200 students, faculty and staff Wednesday at the first Faculty Senate-Chancellor Forum of the spring semester.Martin said higher education is one of the smallest and least protected parts of the state’s budget.”We have to figure out ways not only to encourage the state to make the investments it needs to make [in higher education],” Martin said. “But we also have to offer alternatives so we can have greater control to ensure our destiny is not in the hands of the economy or political forces.”Martin said to help the University’s situation, tuition and fees need to increase.”I believe, over time, students have to pick up a better share of their education at LSU,” he said.In addition to the increase of tuition and fees, Martin said the University needs to restructure academic programs, build a billion-dollar endowment and jump on entrepreneurship opportunities.The University needs to be careful of pushing its agenda so it doesn’t appear self-serving, Martin said.”We apparently have not done a good enough job in 150 years on educating the public [about LSU],” he said.He said he hopes the governor’s budget does not have more financial hits for higher education in the next fiscal year.The government and legislature are more likely to listen to the people who write checks for their campaigns than the people they write checks to, Martin said.When the floor opened for questions at the end of the forum, many faculty members expressed concern about the message the University needs to send for support and the non-renewal notice letters faculty members received and questioned if the administration was also receiving cuts.—–Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]