The LSU Board of Supervisors discussed looming state budget problems at a meeting Sept. 18, addressing drastic changes in how tuition and fees are used to fund schools.
Louisiana faces around an $800 million budget shortage for the upcoming year, after legislators escaped a $1.6 billion shortfall last session, said LSU President F. King Alexander.
Alexander said LSU will aggressively seek fundraising through philanthropic gifts while state lawmakers battle for funding priorities. During the summer legislative session, higher education received the same amount of funding as the previous fiscal year with patchwork bills to hold the budget together.
“We’re not out of the woods,” Alexander said. “We’ve bought six months of time. We’re the hostage they let go, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be the hostage again.”
LSU has seen a drastic shift in funding during the past few years, said Vice President for Finance and Administration Daniel Layzell.
In 2007, 60 percent of LSU funding came from the state government, and 40 percent came from student tuition and fees. Now, Layzell said, the roles are reversed, with the state covering 24 percent and students paying the other 76 percent in tuition and fees.
Alexander, who worked with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on college affordability and state appropriations, said the shift reflects a national trend, with states bowing out of the higher education conversation.
“Tuition and fees are the end result of states getting out of the higher ed business because they can,” Alexander said.
Though LSU is ranked 6th lowest in average tuition and 7th lowest in student debt in the country, Alexander said state funding must increase to offset low tuition.
LSU ranks 44th in public funding, while other schools with low tuition near the top of the list in public funding, Alexander added.
“We’re on the losing side of the dollar on both ends,” Alexander said.
Board member Stephen Perry voiced concerns about raising tuition costs to combat lack of state support.
“We’re transferring state obligations into debt for young people,” Perry said.
The burden of state budget problems will fall on the backs of students and families who will see a rising sticker cost for college if public funding trends continue, Perry said. It would have a “crushing impact” on the middle class.
Board member Scott Ballard said the state has taken away money from LSU while expecting the school to increase performance and educate effectively.
The power to raise tuition should be transferred to the Board of Supervisors, Ballard said. Currently, raises in tuition require approval by the Legislature, while the Board of Supervisors has the power to raise fees independently.
“The state takes away dollars and still want us to improve,” Ballard said. “We have to at least be average at worst in what we can charge if our task is to give the greatest education.”

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Mary Roland

LSU Board of Supervisors met on Friday, Sept. 18, 2015, to discuss higher education funding for the school year.