Chancellor Mark Emmert presented the beginning stage of his flagship agenda to faculty and other University officials and leaders last week, outlining the University’s goal to reach national flagship status by 2010.
The flagship agenda was created to address the University’s standing as a nationally competitive program.
“The concept of ‘national flagship’ refers to establishing LSU as one of the leading public universities in the country, distinguished for its seminal research and first-rank graduate and undergraduate education,” Emmert said.
The agenda focuses on the historical significance of the year 2010, the 150-year anniversary of the University.
“This has been a great university, but we need to bring it back to national prominence,” said Laura Lindsay, interim provost. “This is the first step toward creating a dialogue.”
To begin this dialogue between the administration and faculty and students, Emmert compared the academic data of LSU with its regional peers.
The findings show LSU has made great strides in the past five years in relation to its competition but still trails in most indicators.
Of immediate concern are the low numbers of tenure-track faculty and graduate students at the University, Emmert said.
Although one out of three classes at LSU has fewer than 20 students, the student-faculty ratio of 21-to-1 is one of the worst in the University’s peer group. Emmert said 242 faculty positions are needed to improve that ratio to a more respectable 17-to-1.
In addition, the school needs to convert another 200 teaching positions to tenure-track to reduce the University’s reliance on instructor positions. These 442 new positions would cost the University almost $20 million, Emmert said.
Despite improvements in undergraduate enrollment and retention rates, graduate students make up only 15 percent of the student body, and LSU ranks next-to-last in postdoctoral appointees.
Emmert noted several other indicators as the University begins its campaign to include itself among the top public universities:
– Six-year graduation rates have risen from 39 percent to 58 percent in the last 10 years; however, LSU ranks in the bottom third of its peer group.
– Although the retention rate of new freshmen jumped to 84 percent in 2002, LSU still ranks seventh out of its 10 peer schools.
– Faculty pay increased 16 percent from 1999 to 2002, the second highest increase among the peer universities. After the increase, faculty average pay still placed sixth in comparison to the peer group.
– The average composite ACT score for new freshmen is at an all-time high of 24.4. The top schools in the peer group, though, average 27.
Other critical needs Emmert addressed are improving graduate assistantships and faculty rewards, research and school contributions, state appropriations and admissions selectivity.
As part of the discussion, individual departments are scheduled to share suggestions and discuss goals for the national flagship agenda with their deans March 17. Students are encouraged to participate and provide suggestions at www.lsu.edu/flagship.
An exact definition and goals for the flagship agenda remain primary questions, said Jason Droddy, coordinator for the chancellor’s office.
“This is the crux of the dialogue,” Droddy said. “What is it that we want LSU to be? How do we make ourselves better than our competition?”
The peer group represents what is desirable and attainable by 2010 with an aggressive but realistic action plan, Emmert said.
In the early 1990s, the Board of Regents identified 10 universities that would serve as “regional peer universities” for LSU, Droddy said. They are land-grant universities with similar roles, scopes and missions.
By definition, this would eliminate comparisons to other universities in Louisiana, Emmert said.
“A national flagship university competes on a national level,” Emmert said. “We are the only university with a mission to represent the state of Louisiana.”
Three of the universities — Texas A&M University, the University of Florida and the University of Maryland — serve as national benchmarks because they are members of the Association of American Universities, a group of 62 of the most research-intensive schools in the country.
The other seven represent the virtual peer group with which LSU can compare itself. These universities include: Auburn, North Carolina State, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia Tech.
LSU is a comprehensive, nationally competitive research university, Lindsay said.
“This means we must maintain a leadership position in terms of quality educational programs, research and service,” Lindsay said. “We also must compare ourselves … with schools on the national level.”
Emmert outlined the core questions for the flagship agenda at the Chancellor’s Forum Jan. 15 in the 1,000-seat auditorium under the heading “Setting the Course — LSU in 2010: Achieving National Flagship Status.” The forum was open to all LSU faculty, deans, chairs and unit heads.
“In many areas, we want to outperform our peers, and already do,” Emmert said. “But we should certainly set our sights on being at the head of that class by 2010.”