The state’s higher education budget is facing a nearly $67 million budget cut to offset part of the huge deficit created after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco directed the Board of Regents to trim $66.6 million from its statewide budget in a Nov. 5 executive order.
In a news release, the Board of Regents outlined its plan to cut funding from the university systems under its control.
The LSU System will have $27 million cut from its budget. The Board of Supervisors will decide how much each campus in the system will be affected.
“We’re waiting on the Board of Supervisors to distribute the cuts before we can decide what needs to be cut here at LSU-BR,” said Student Government President Michelle Gieg. “We are going to have to streamline to make sure higher education in the state fits the changed demographic of the state.”
Gieg said the main problem the Board of Supervisors has to deal with is how to distribute fair cuts while some parts of the system are operating under deficits of their own.
The LSU Health Sciences Center is facing massive deficits, and experts have estimated the center may be entirely out of money by the end of March 2006.
Members of the Board of Supervisors have called the center’s budget deficit an “enormous problem,” and have said they are working hard to find a solution to the center’s impending bankruptcy.
“We’re all working extremely hard to make sure we are able to save the Health Sciences Center,” said Stewart Slack, board member from Shreveport , Tuesday.
The regents’ plan also calls for an end to new academic programs, administrative reorganizations and a reduction of first-time freshmen at four-year institutions for the fall 2006 semester.
The plan requires four-year institutions to reduce their freshman enrollment by at least 1,000 with the idea that more students will enroll in the state’s community colleges, where “instruction is less expensive and where they may gain the foundation for success later at a four-year institution.”
Though universities around the state are confronting the realities associated with major changes on their campuses, Gieg said the changes may be a positive thing for higher education in the state.
“This is a real opportunity to look at the holistic picture of education,” she said. “This is a conversation that has been happening even before the hurricanes, and as sad as it is, we might have a better picture of what higher education needs to be in this state as a result of these hurricanes. We can rebuild with an eye toward the future and not toward the past.”