State Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-St. Tammany, is preparing to take on one of the sacred cows of higher education with a bill she plans to introduce during the regular legislative session that would combine the state’s five higher education boards into one.
At the Louisiana Board of Regents meeting earlier today, Hewitt said she was tired of the boards’ failure to work together to achieve efficiencies and suggested that breaking down the silos that keep them apart might be the best way to address the problem.
Each of the state’s four higher education systems—LSU, Southern University, University of Louisiana and Louisiana Community and Technical Colleges—has its own management board. All four are overseen by the Board of Regents.
Hewitt’s frustration stems from what she says is the lack of action on a bill she passed in 2016, Act 619, which laid out a number of action items for the higher ed boards to address. None of the items was followed up on, she says.
“One of the recommendations required them to work across system boundaries within their various geographic areas and look at ways where you could share expenses and work together to get better pricing,” she says. “We have a school that is part of the LSU System, next to one that is part of the Southern System, next to a community college. So there are opportunities for shared efficiencies and for shared academic programs. But they didn’t do any of that. Why?”
Merging the five boards into one may not be the only way to achieve greater cooperation among the systems, but Hewitt says it’s worth a try.
“If the silos, the boundaries, are the barriers than I’m willing to eliminate the barriers and have a single board,” she says. “There may be other ways to do it but I haven’t seen that yet.”
Previous attempts to merge the boards in the 1990s and early 2000s proved politically unpopular and unsuccessful, and already Hewitt’s comments are raising red flags in higher ed circles. Since the Board of Regents meeting this afternoon, Hewitt has already heard from the four system presidents and says they’re offering to come to the table and talk about solutions.
The state senator says she’s glad to see this newfound spirit of cooperation among the systems and hopes they produce meaningful synergies. But she plans to go forward with her legislation regardless.
Says Hewitt: “I’m going to draft the bill and we’ll work on simultaneous paths.”
