Somewhere in the bowels of the LSU System, our campus is missing out on millions of dollars, as today’s cover story indicates.
LSU System President John Lombardi wishes you didn’t know about this.
This isn’t the first time the System has helped other institutions at the expense of LSU. It isn’t even the first time they’ve tried to cover it up.
This time, the System changed the formula in a hurried presentation with no public discussion whatsoever.
It has also come to light that Lombardi met with Board of Supervisors members the day before the meeting — which, conveniently, was the Friday before spring break.
Last semester, the System voted to increase LSU’s midyear budget cut to prevent cuts to the LSU AgCenter and Pennington Biomedical Research Center — the morning of the Alabama football game. That’s hardly ideal transparency.
It isn’t improper for Lombardi to try to minimize budget cuts to the institutions he oversees — nor is his plan for distributing the money improper.
But it is improper for the System to make these decisions behind closed doors. And it is improper for Lombardi to strong-arm campus officials from publicly protesting, which rampant rumors indicate he is doing.
Why else would virtually no LSU administrator discuss the HEIF, despite the $16 million at stake? Why else would they choose to speak through surrogates, which Flagship Coalition co-chair Sean Reilly is?
The debate on the plan needs to be public. Lombardi should have to defend why our tuition dollars are going to teaching hospitals most of us will never use.
Right now he isn’t because no one knows he’s doing it. We hope that stops now.
The System’s vote is not final — there is a long battle to be fought in the Legislature before anything is certain about the budget.
Somewhere, that battle should turn to this issue. Otherwise, students are being cheated.
 
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