Although no action was taken, the LSU Board of Supervisors discussed Friday the consequences of a $21.2 million midyear LSU System budget reduction, $2.2 million for the University alone.
System President John Lombardi said the System has received a variety of guidance from the Louisiana Board of Regents but said the reduction is “more complicated than usual.”
Lombardi said the cut, which he referred to as the “infamous cliff,” would be distributed between two parts — one part to teaching institutions and one part to non-teaching institutions.
“A significant portion of an institution’s budget is in non-teaching,” Lombardi said. “We’re trying to find a way to manage the process so it’s effectively implemented to all institutions.”
Board of Supervisors member Ronald Anderson questioned this method, saying the divide was “ridiculous if you look at it.”
“It’s a real short-sighted approach to where we are,” he said during the meeting. Lombardi said the System does not yet know how much next year’s total reduction will be, but the Board will “continue the process of planning.”
Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration recently asked colleges to prepare for a potential 32-percent cut amounting to more than $182 million of their state funds for the next fiscal year. Lombardi recognized the threatening reduction would require a “reframing of higher education” and serious reduction of faculty, staff and programs.
“I wish I could give you an answer,” he said, “but my crystal ball isn’t that good.”
In other actions, the Board evaluated the 14-day enrollment numbers for each campus. The University’s report displayed growth in areas like enrollment and transfers, an act the Board said was “phenomenal considering the conditions that exist in higher education.”
The Board also approved the lease agreement with the LSU Property Foundation for the design and construction of a $1.4 million facility located at the University’s Hilltop Arboretum on Highland Road.
Peggy Davis Coates, director of the Hilltop Arboretum, spoke on behalf of the facility and said it was essential for the landscape architecture program. She called the 2,050-square-foot addition a “real treasure for LSU.”
The motion to rename the University’s Agricultural Administration Building to “Martin D. Woodin Hall” in honor of Woodin, a former LSU president was also approved unanimously.
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Contact Sydni Dunn at [email protected]