The University’s Flagship Agenda has been making headway since 2003, but administrators said it needs improvement.Astrid Merget, provost and executive vice chancellor, said the Flagship Agenda is a living document that can always use continuous improvement.University officials met earlier this month to discuss the Flagship Agenda’s progress and what improvements it needs. Officials included all the deans of the colleges, vice chancellors, vice provosts, the University Planning Council, Chancellor Michael Martin and Merget.”We spent a day kind of reflecting on what we’ve learned, what progress we made [and] what refinements we need to make,” Merget said.Merget said if the Flagship Agenda gets the revamp it needs, she wants to make sure it’s contemporary, in sync with the times and reflects what the University is learning.”One of the lessons we’ve learned in implementing the Flagship Agenda is we underestimated how important and how in need the physical facilities on campus are,” Merget said.Classrooms, laboratories and art studios are just a few examples Merget gave that needs improvement.Student Government President Colorado Robertson said one of the weakest points of the current Flagship Agenda is it’s too generic and vague.”LSU is a very unique place,” Robertson said. “The next one should be more defined to what we do well here at LSU.”Robertson said funding for the Flagship Agenda has become one of the stronger points during the past few years.”To accomplish what’s been put forth on the Flagship Agenda, we needed funding,” Robertson said. “The funding hasn’t always been there, and I’m glad that we’ve been funded … over the last two years.”Robertson said he hopes the state continues to support the University and help meet the goals the Flagship Agenda set in 2010.Forever LSU, a fundraising campaign used to make the Flagship Agenda’s goals come to life, raised more than $500 million as of May 31 — about $250 million shy for the $750 million goal.”The easy part’s been done,” Robertson said. “They have a lot of work to do.”One of the goals which has made significant progress is to hire 150 new faculty members by 2010. The University has hired 114 faculty members and gave $35.3 million in compensation and benefits, according to the Flagship Agenda’s Web site.Another goal making progress is increasing graduate assistants by 50 percent. The University has been able to increase them by 37 percent.Merget said the entire agenda puts an emphasis on quality.”We want high-quality students, high-quality faculty and high-quality programs,” Merget said. “We have been very inventive in doing that across all of the dimensions of our academic mission.”—–Contact JJ Alcantara at [email protected]