Amid looming budget cuts, Louisiana higher education officials say they need to work together to fight for more dollars and ensure their institutions have an even greater impact on the state’s economy.
Under the worst-case scenario, the state’s college and universities would have about $608 million less in state funding than they currently receive, Commissioner of Higher Education Joseph Rallo said at Monday’s Acadiana Press Club forum in Lafayette, The Advertiser reports.
Officials are hoping that number will change after conversations with legislators and Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration. But they acknowledge that no matter what happens in the upcoming legislative session, the likelihood is that higher education funding will decrease by millions of dollars.
“I don’t want to leave people with despair. But as the leadership around the table, we have to come to grips with the numbers that are there, as well as the numbers we believe will be there,” Rallo said.
LSU President F. King Alexander, who called the possible cuts “almost cartoon-like,” said the university does have “room to move” on its tuition costs. Alexander said LSU costs less than many flagship universities in other states, although officials don’t want to feel like they are overcharging.
“We just want the flexibility to charge as much as our peers,” Alexander said.
Another option is for LSU athletics to contribute more to the academic side, Alexander said.
“We want to make sure athletics is self-funded, but there is an obligation to the rest of the campus. That re-allocation back to the university probably should be more in times of difficulty. We’re looking at all of it,” Alexander said. “We want to make sure our fans who come to those games understand that this has a significant impact on the life of a university. There is no athletic event without the university. That’s what we need to convey to them.”
Sandra Woodley, president of the University of Louisiana System, said there is a myth that closing some higher education campuses would solve problems. Woodley said studies have shown those closures actually cost more. Instead, Woodley said she would like the state to invest more resources toward increasing enrollment. Currently, about 90,000 students are in the UL System, she added.
“If we want to be on target to achieve our plans, we need to double the number of degrees we produce,” Woodley said. “We badly need to ramp our numbers up.”
