LSU will do what is in the best interest of its student body in light of recent budget cuts, Chancellor Mike Martin told a crowd at a Breakfast to Business meeting this morning. While the impact of budget cuts on class sizes and the student body should be minimal at worst this year, Martin says, further budget cuts will have a detrimental impact next year.
Efforts to preserve academics, reorganize current university programs and save jobs while protecting of the university’s flagship agenda drove the budget cuts, Martin says. The cuts will slash funding for the Student Recreation Center, cut salaries at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center and close research labs at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, as well as require some staff furloughs and a system-wide suspension of pay raises.
Martin says LSU should focus on recruiting graduate-level and community college students to bolster enrollment numbers. Approximately 5,200 freshmen are enrolled for the fall, Martin says, but budget cuts could cause recruitment problems among financially challenged students and academically accomplished students, who may accept scholarships elsewhere. “We’ll see the impact of this over two to three years,” Martin says. “What it comes down to is students trying to get a high quality education. That’s what we are committed to.” Non-budgetary challenges LSU faces include an aging faculty and a 40-year old infrastructure that is very expensive to fix, Martin says. — Emma James
