Student Government President J Hudson and Vice President Dani Borel said Tuesday that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s responses to their concerns about higher education were swift but did not answer their questions.
Hudson and Borel met with Chancellor Michael Martin and Jindal at the Governor’s Mansion on Tuesday to bring up students’ questions about the future of the University.
“We had a good meeting today, discussing how higher-education institutions can provide better value for students across Louisiana for the funds we invest in them,” Jindal said in a statement from press secretary Kyle Plotkin.
Borel said while Jindal helped them understand some things they didn’t know about state funding and higher education, his answers this week were to be expected.
“They were very quick to spout facts and statistics and not make it relevant to higher education,” Borel said Monday.
Hudson said he was happy Jindal agreed to meet with them after all the efforts SG has made to talk to him.
Hudson said he and Borel laid out three propositions for the governor to address — a forum at the University involving legislators and Jindal to discuss budget cuts, the rationale for the Board of Regents” funding formula and a plan for creating a better flagship campus.
Hudson said they would give Jindal time to come up with the answers to their concerns and hopefully see him at SG’s scheduled legislative forum in February.
“[Jindal] is in agreement with our ideas about the [Regents’] funding formula and a constitutional amendment,” Borel said.
The constitutional amendment Borel is referring to would protect higher education by allowing more across-the-board cuts to the state budget.
Jindal said in the statement that he will continue to support reforms to protect higher education funding in the budget by pushing for constitutional amendments to provide more budget protection for higher education and health care.
“This isn’t a publicity stunt. This isn’t, ‘Hey, let’s get a picture with Jindal,'” Hudson said about the Tuesday meeting. “This is saving higher education and saving LSU.”
Hudson and Borel also delivered the 700 letters University students wrote to Jindal asking for relief during the next round of budget cuts. But Hudson said there wasn’t as much of a “wow” factor as they had expected.
“That’s why we need to write 30,000 [letters],” Hudson said.
Martin said the meeting with Jindal was a good conversation for the governor to hear students’ concerns.
“I’m hopeful this will lead to more conversations to come so that LSU continues to make progress,” Martin said.
Jindal has said repeatedly the state government is not going to reward higher education programs that don’t return in performance.
“It’s not acceptable to have that much waste,” Jindal said Monday about Louisiana’s high dropout rate.
Jindal spelled out some of the “waste” in his Facebook post Oct. 21 responding to concerned Louisiana students.
“As of this May our six-year graduation rate was only 38 percent — far behind the 53-percent graduation rate for other states in the southern region,” Jindal said in the post.
In response to claims of massive budget cuts, Jindal said higher education’s budget has decreased by 4.57 percent since 2008, as opposed to a 26-percent decrease in the overall state budget.
“LSU’s main campus, in fact, has seen a reduction of 1.5 percent in funding,” Jindal wrote Oct. 21.
But according to Plotkin, the inclusion of increased tuition under the LA GRAD Act to the University’s budget constitutes an increase.
In a statement Tuesday, Jindal said “LSU’s main campus has actually seen a 0.3-percent increase in funding, including new funds provided through the GRAD Act.”
 
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Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]