Chancellor Michael Martin pitched new ways of bringing LSU System campuses together at the Chancellor’s Forum on Tuesday.A group of more than 100 administrators, faculty, staff and students gathered in the Hill Memorial Library to discuss how the University fits into the System.”I am still sorting out in my own mind what the System is and how it works,” Martin said. “I’m still working — three months into this — to try and get a handle.”Kevin Cope, Faculty Senate president, said he has always been “impressed” the one problem among System campuses is the incongruity in its missions.Martin said there are some historic and traditional tensions among the institutions.”There seems to be some lack of trust between parts of the System,” he said. “The Baton Rouge campus is looked upon as the 800-pound gorilla that influences the other [campuses] through a ripple effect.”Martin said he has tried to connect with other System chancellors in hopes they won’t feel threatened and wants to find ways to make each unit co-exist.Martin said one thing the University can do to reach out to other campuses is to create a pilot program to help build a common curriculum attracting graduate student applicants to the state’s flagship institution.”We’ve got many opportunities to take assets that are viewed to be in the control of the Baton Rouge campus and make them more accessible to our sister institutions,” he said.Martin said the LSU Press is an asset that can be utilized by everyone across the System and beyond. The LSU Press is a non-profit book publisher that is dedicated to publishing scholarly, general interest and regional books.Martin also said if it was up to him, he would expand Tiger Stadium to make football available to students from every System entity.”We have to ask, what have we got that others would like to have a share in,” he said. “Then, what have we got that we can share.”Martin said the University has to look “sincerely magnanimous.””In the end of the day, it goes back to the same question: What is in the best interest of the citizens of Louisiana and its students?” he said.- – – -Contact J.J. Alcantara at [email protected]