LSU System President John Lombardi’s comments about the future of TOPS earlier this month sparked speculation in classrooms and across campus that it may face changes, cuts or even eradication.
More than 12,000 University students under the merit-based scholarship program received a total of nearly $22 million from the state this semester for tuition payments.
Robert Kuhn, associate vice chancellor for the Office of Budget and Planning, said 95 percent of the University’s full-time, degree-seeking freshmen from in-state are on the TOPS program, a merit-based scholarship for Louisiana residents. He said that while the percentage may decrease in later years, he would assume most of those students will retain TOPS eligibility.
“There are eligibility requirements. So if we start with 95 percent, then there may be a drop in the percentage that retain [TOPS] through the following three years,” he said. “Just because you come in with TOPS doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to retain it.”
Kuhn said speculation was understandable because the program is so expensive.
“I think something that is requiring over $100 million [per year] is always going to be up for discussion,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean there are going to be changes. It’s going to be a topic because it is expensive for the state.”
Lombardi took up the topic on Nov. 5 at a Press Club of Baton Rouge luncheon. Lombardi vocalized his views and was quoted by The Advocate on Nov. 6 on the state of the TOPS program.
“We subsidize everybody whether they need it or not,” he said. “Therefore, we don’t have enough money extra to subsidize people who probably need it to come to the institution.”
Student Sen. Tim Brinks, business junior, disagreed with Lombardi. He said the reasoning behind TOPS was to provide a merit-based incentive for deserving Louisianians to attend school in-state.
“[Patrick Taylor’s] whole idea – the whole idea behind TOPS – was to keep our top students in state and not let them go to school out of state, and therefore probably never come back,” Brinks said.
Brinks, a member of the Student Senate committee on academics, athletics and administration, said the program is key to helping “make LSU a top-tier university” – one of the goals of the Flagship Agenda – and preventing Louisiana’s brightest youth from leaving the state in a “mass exodus.”
Student Government President Cassie Alsfeld said the University’s status as the state’s premier educational institution justifies heavy allocation of TOPS funds by the state.
“Our students are not as needy, perse, as some of the smaller schools or hurricane-ravaged schools, or even the schools outside of our system,” she said. “But then again we are the flagship university. You see that a lot of people in other schools are upset that LSU takes so much of this money, but we’re the flagship institution.”
Alsfeld said there are already need-based financial aid options available, like the Louisiana Go Grant and the University’s Pelican Promise, and many academically-qualified high school students would not qualify for financial aid on need alone.
“The majority of our highest-achieving students, our greatest prospects, are not going to qualify for the [Federal] Pell Grants or anything else,” she said. “It’s actually very hard to qualify even though we’re well below the poverty line in Louisiana.”
Lombardi, who took his position in September, said at the luncheon that altering TOPS was not a priority and reiterated praise for the program in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille.
“Although I have not had a full review of [TOPS], it is clear that it has proven tremendously popular and successful in encouraging students in Louisiana to focus on academic performance, and as a reward, earning them a benefit through the TOPS program,” he said in the e-mail. “This has been so successful in Louisiana in achieving its intended purpose that many other states have adopted similar programs.”
The Board of Regents recently released a study saying TOPS students have a graduation rate of 59 percent, compared to 25 percent for non-TOPS students. Gus Wales, director of public information and communications for the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance, said ACT scores have also been increasing.
Some students, including Brinks and Alsfeld, likely would have considered other universities had it not been for TOPS.
“I do know that, looking around and seeing the students that are on TOPS for the most part, a good percentage of them would not be at LSU if it weren’t for TOPS,” Alsfeld said. “Let’s just say that TOPS had a very big impact on my decision of LSU. I had scholarships elsewhere.”
Brinks said he chose to attend the University was his intention to attend law school and practice law in Louisiana. Without TOPS, he would have looked at other options like the University of Notre Dame.
“There’s a lot of places I wanted to go, but I decided because of TOPS and the fact I wouldn’t have to pay one cent for anything to come here, because then I could spend all my money at law school.”
Ben Day, electrical engineering freshman, qualified for the highest tier TOPS offers, and his education is completely paid for. He said having TOPS factored heavily into his decision to come to LSU instead of a more prestigious university.
“I had even Ivy League schools send me letters and stuff,” he said. “But that was really expensive, and LSU is a good school, especially coming for free.”
For now, students on TOPS need not worry. State Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said TOPS has been accomplishing its goal of retaining high-caliber students and is probably safe from major changes.
“Right now [its success] will defend TOPS against any desires to change it,” Cassidy said. “Money’s easy right now. The budget is not tight, so [TOPS] is not likely to be fundamentally changed.”
—-Contact Parker Wishik at [email protected]