Interim Southern University President Orlando McMeans is urging a legislative task force reviewing Louisiana’s higher education funding formula to account for the historical funding disparity between Southern and LSU, Louisiana Illuminator reports.
McMeans cites a $1.2 billion gap in state funding since the 1980s, identified by the Biden administration in 2023, and is asking lawmakers to use that figure to help establish a more equitable baseline for future funding without financially harming other universities. Southern and LSU are the state’s two federal land-grant universities, which receive federal benefits but require state matching funds that Louisiana has allegedly not consistently provided.
McMeans says decades of unequal funding have affected Southern’s campus infrastructure, student services and ability to offer programs aligned with workforce needs. He is seeking a $60 million to $100 million state investment to address infrastructure problems, including an aging power grid responsible for repeated outages and class cancellations.
The task force, which met Monday at the State Capitol, is also reviewing changes to the funding formula following controversy over a previously removed metric that rewarded universities for graduating already-enrolled minority students. Its removal shifted funding away from Southern, prompting renewed debate over how state funding should be distributed.
Louisiana’s broader higher education funding challenges date to budget cuts during former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s 2008-2016 administration, which forced universities to rely more heavily on tuition revenue. Higher education leaders estimate public colleges and universities receive more than $800 million less than they did at the beginning of Jindal’s tenure, before accounting for the long-standing disparity between Southern and LSU. Inflation has added further pressure, while Gov. Jeff Landry has kept higher education spending flat since taking office in January 2024.
