A new strategic plan is in the works to guide LSU through the next several years implementing its scholarship first agenda.
Coupled with its recent completion of the Fierce for the Future campaign, the university is well on its way to solidifying its new direction in its budding love for strategic planning and, hopefully, the dollars associated with it.
To varying degrees of success, universities across the country engage in strategic planning efforts to change the direction of their institutions.
The plans are usually closely followed by associated fundraising campaigns to help actualize and implement the aims of the strategic planning process.
Here in Baton Rouge, our goals and aspirations haven’t changed much over 20 years, various leaders and several different planning processes.
The national flagship agenda—the university’s plan to improve its standing among large public research universities—was launched in 2003 by the university planning council. It laid out bold goals in alignment with those of the state and where it wanted to go, including investments in bioinformatics, graduate student stipends and numerous other areas. 
Almost 20 years later, the university is still talking about some of the same kind of goals and investments. Now and then, these goals require strategic investments to actually materialize, not simply wishful planning. 
“We have observed a number of public universities that have been seriously constrained in pursuing new initiatives,” RAND researchers noted, “because of the inflexible traditional public-sector budgeting systems they must follow.”
The national flagship agenda offers a perfect example of this dilemma for the university. The plan called for capping enrollment at 30,000, but state budget cuts under Gov. Bobby Jindal forced the university to boost enrollment to ensure it stayed afloat financially.
“Have our goals been realized? I don’t think anyone can honestly say they have been,” said William Jenkins, retired LSU Chancellor and system president, to The Advocate in 2016. “We could have been so much further ahead.”
Throughout the Jindal years, ambitious plans to raise our scholarly profile were effectively halted by a governor who deprioritized public higher education and the state’s role in funding it.
The scholarship first agenda is a second bite at the apple in elevating the flagship while focusing on its service mission to the Pelican State.
The last several years, have been positive—at least financially—for the university, with Gov. John Bel Edwards prioritizing reinvestment into higher education across the state, which has benefited LSU in particular with total state investment to LSU being $110 million for the 2023 budget year.
Despite increased state support, the university as a percentage of the budget still receives less from the state today than it did at the inception of the national flagship agenda in 2003.
Shortly after arriving in Baton Rouge, President William F. Tate IV derided the lack of “collective behavior” between the university and the broader public as parallel play.
It was a siren call for additional philanthropic investment from the business community and additional involvement between the university and the business community that it supports.
In one of Tate’s biggest announcements to date, Shell donated $27.5 million to establish the LSU Institute for Energy Innovation—a key component of the scholarship first framework. The hope is to make similar announcements a consistent event.
While speaking to the Baton Rouge Rotary Club—a professional club for business, nonprofit and government leaders— in December 2021, Tate read a hypothetical 2050 obituary for the university.
“Today we mourn the death of an old friend, LSU,” he said.
That is something that both the national flagship agenda and the scholarship first agenda frameworks seek to address. Increased funding could allow the university to raise its research profile and garner top rankings by hiring additional faculty to solidify its existing strength.
It’s a noble pursuit to repair the reputation of a school that has been subject to a roller coaster of unfavorable funding scenarios in recent history.
The approach seems to be netting significant new investments in support of its core pillars. Increased communication with legislative leaders has netted earmark funds for specific projects at the university, the largest investment being $12 million for a top-spec AI supercomputer.
Coupled with a record-breaking donation from LCMC Health and Our Lady of the Lake, committing $245 million over 10 years, the university is seeing tangible investments from its planning. Expanding on these successes will continue to move the community’s relationship with LSU beyond parallel play.
It’s an exciting time here at LSU, and hopefully it marks a turnaround from years of funding neglect toward the flagship.
Charlie Stephens is a 22-year-old political communication senior from Baton Rouge.