LSU chancellor says legislative session was relatively successful for higher ed

Considering that, at one time, university officials were told to prepare for state spending cuts as large as 32%, the just-ended legislative session was pretty successful for higher education, LSU Chancellor Mike Martin says. While new tuition hikes were not approved, universities were given the go-ahead on increases approved in prior sessions, as well as greater freedom in managing their finances. “The predictions of doom turned out to be overstated, and that made us feel a whole lot better,” Martin says. “There were some other revenue enhancements that I still believe were reasonable, but this wasn’t the year to get them. … On balance, I think it was about as good an outcome as we probably could have expected.” LSU still is working on annualizing over $50 million in prior cuts and dealing with rising mandated costs, Martin says, but a fairly large freshman class and improving retention rates should boost tuition income. —David Jacobs