Chancellor Michael Martin briefed the Board of Supervisors on the status of realignment discussions at LSU A&M in Baton Rouge on Thursday.
“We are not as far along as our sister institutions,” Martin said. “We still have a distance to go. We are at the point where we are listening and waiting for reports back. This is simply a very interim report.”
Martin said the University is simply following the national trend of restructuring universities in order to be more “dynamic and responsive.”
“Universities have to rethink the way they operate. We want to be more effective with the resources we have,” Martin said. “Recently, our baseball coach did a little restructuring of his own. We were No. 5 when he did it, and some people questioned his timing, but he was thinking of the long-term. And it paid off. We want to do as [LSU baseball coach] Paul Mainieri has done — which is shake things up a bit.”Mainieri said after the Tigers’ game one win against Rice on Friday he finds Martin thinking about LSU baseball’s postseason run encouraging considering the severity of the budget situation he’s currently focused on.”I know he’s a big baseball fan,” Mainieri said. “I know he’s got a tough job right now, and everybody with these budget cuts is under the gun. Mike’s in a tough position. He’s going to have to make a lot of tough decisions that aren’t going to be popular with a lot of people. I feel for the guy, and I feel for everyone who’s going to be affected by it.”
Board member Hank Gowen questioned Martin’s inclusion of the University community in restructuring discussions.
“I found out about it in the morning Advocate. [LSU System President John Lombardi] and many faculty members found out about it in the morning Advocate,” Gowen said. “I read what the faculty said about it, and they criticized the process. I’m not saying what was done was not needed, but I don’t think you got enough people in on it.”
Martin said the point was “very well taken” but defended his decisions.
“I’m sorry if The Advocate picked it up, but we have been having these conversations across campus,” Martin said. “You need a place to start off with. That was the point of making a faculty member leader of the coordinating committee, and there are a series of committees under that.”
Martin was unable to give a timeline for implementing restructuring, saying it is dependent on the budget.
“We will do it in phases, but in all candor, we can’t do anything until we know what our budget looks like,” Martin said. “The outcome of the budget may fundamentally change what we need to do as compared to what we want to do.”—-Contact Katie Kennedy at [email protected]