Leaders fear the potential mid-year cuts to the University — disclosed by LSU President F. King Alexander at $65 million — will drag the school down the academic ladder to the cellar of national rankings. And the damage, from negative publicity surrounding the state funding fight, may already be done.
Annual talks of devastating budget reductions could drive away future students and faculty, which keep the University competitive, elsewhere, administrators wrote in a Jan. 25 report.
The report, detailing the consequences of a potential $65 million, or 32 percent, reduction in state support, warned that students might have to pay an extra $690 in fees this year, and additional “substantial increases” in following years to compensate for a necessary enrollment cap and loss of students and faculty.
Associate Vice President of Budget and Planning Tommy Smith said this is the time of year the University recruits students and faculty, and budget cut talks are already making that harder
“[If prospective faculty and students] saw the news from the last couple years, and see these potential future cuts, it makes it very difficult to not only recruit new students and faculty but it makes it difficult to retain top faculty and students also,” Smith said.
While U.S. News and World Report’s national universities ranking put LSU at 129, and Forbes ranked it 191, Smith said he doesn’t think there is a legitimate ranking system out there. There are a myriad of indicators to base scores on, and “everybody has a different opinion,” he said.
But the numbers don’t lie, and LSU receives less funding than its peer schools.
Based on the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard, the University has the fifth smallest budget per student among each state’s flagship public university.
The University’s expenditures per student, at $12,818, are more than $25,000 less than Pennsylvania State University, which tops the list at $38,379. Only the Universities of Arkansas, Nebraska, Georgia and Montana spend less per student than the University, but not by much.
And the University’s lack of maintenance reflects the lack of funding, said Board of Regents Chair Richard Lipsey in a Jan. 21 interview.
Lipsey spent the summer and fall of 2015 touring each of the state’s public universities to evaluate their maintenance issues, which stem from a $2 billion backlog in deferred maintenance.
“We don’t have any new, modern universities in the state,” Lipsey said. “They all are in need of repairs … leaks in walls, roofing, all built before ADA requirements. Labs that don’t have proper ventilation — it’s remarkable. Labs that were totally useless because the ventilation systems aren’t up to date — I could go on and on with deferred maintenance.”
Smith said the University has also had to cut faculty numbers and pay the current faculty less than peer schools.
But he told the story of a school, with a fraction of the means of its peer institutions, that has nonetheless produced a “great quality product.”
The College Scorecard backs that up by every indicator, including retention, graduation rates and mid-career salaries, the University ranks at a higher level than its funding.
But the University is still on the bottom half of the list for most of the benchmarks, and administrators are cautioning the legislature and Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration against a 32 percent cut that could hurt its abilities even more.
Smith said student-to-faculty ratios, in which the University ranks worse than its peers, both regionally and nationally, are another big ranking indicator that either attract or push away potential students and faculty.
“From a legislative standpoint they might say ‘Boy, that’s efficient,’” he said. “From a higher ed standpoint that is ridiculous. That’s not the optimal way to provide an education.”
The University’s report on the impact of the cuts showed state support for higher education declining since 2009, reducing with it academic programs and faculty and staff positions. LSU President F. King Alexander has often called for more autonomy for the school’s board, allowing the school to make up the funding lost by state reductions with tuition-raising power and the ability to save money on spending contracts.
Since fiscal year 2010, University leaders say budget cuts have caused the school to consolidate or eliminate 35 programs and eliminate 180 faculty positions and 170 staff positions.
New cuts, according to the report, could eliminate 275 courses, 270 staff positions and 135 faculty positions, as well as $9.5 million in research money for the remainder of the year.
“What do we need to fix our rankings? There’s no telling. But what we would like to be is at least be average,” Smith said.