The LSU System has received authority from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee to do its own procurement when making bulk purchases of everything from paper towels to the protective eyewear used in labs. The change, made official by the legislative committee last week, comes on the heels of another recent change giving LSU the authority to seek more competitive pricing on different types of insurance, such as worker’s compensation.
Though the changes may seem technical, they’re significant because they give the university system more control and flexibility over its own budget at a time when the university is facing steep cuts. LSU President and Chancellor King Alexander estimates the greater spending autonomy will save LSU more than $5 million this year.
“This is big,” Alexander says. “We’ve been working on this for three years, and it’s more important now than ever with the financial situation the state is facing.”
The state’s higher education institutions are in the crosshairs of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration, which has threatened to cut as much as $300 million from their budgets in order to help plug an estimated $1.4 billion shortfall. For LSU’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge alone, such drastic cuts would amount to some $60 million, according to Alexander.
As a practical matter, cuts that severe could mean the loss of an estimated 300 faculty members, $130 million research dollars and nearly 50% fewer science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, graduates.
“We’re working behind the scenes to mitigate this as much as possible,” he says. “If this comes to fruition it will be devastating for all higher ed in the state.”
Alexander says he is working on several different scenarios and is also trying to communicate to state lawmakers just how debilitating $60 million in cuts to the Baton Rouge campus would be.
One potential solution would be to give the university more autonomy over its tuition rates, much as it has been given the authority to do its own procurement and risk management. Those powers were granted to LSU by the legislature under the GRAD Act, which was created several years ago to give universities more flexibility in return for improved student outcomes. Universities, including LSU, were granted limited authority to raise tuition under the original act in 2010 but have said they need still more autonomy. Alexander says he will ask again in the upcoming session.
“We’re going to try,” he says. “Everything is on the table.”
—Stephanie Riegel
