LSU Drafting "Academic Bankruptcy" Plan

[Mako19]

Isn't it a shame how academics are a necessary evil for the Fighting Tigers and how they can get in the way of their $100 M (Top 5 in the nation) athletic budget?

It's almost as if some seem to think that higher education is the main objective of a University!

Anyone who visits the sport's bar and reads those faithful Tigguh fans' posts knows that the main reason for having Universities is to field athletic teams for those "die-hard fans" to beat their chest about around the water cooler and claim to be a part of.

I wonder if LSU A&M will funnel some TAF money to fill the gap left from the State Budget cuts?

all joking aside this is a serious issue and i know all public Universities will be impacted. But, for some reason I have no sympathy for the Flagship on this issue.

"LSU and many other public colleges in Louisiana might be forced to file for financial exigency, essentially academic bankruptcy, if state higher education funding doesn't soon take a turn for the better.

Louisiana's flagship university began putting together the paperwork for declaring financial exigency this week when the Legislature appeared to make little progress on finding a state budget solution, according to F. King Alexander, president and chancellor of LSU.

"We don't say that to scare people," he said. "Basically, it is how we are going to survive.""

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...ankruptcy.html

[Smalls]

Dark days ahead for higher education. I fear its only a matter of time before universities have to be privatized or shutdown/merged with others.

Honestly, there are probably too many 4-year and 2-year universities in the state anyway, but I would hate to see any of them shutdown. I can't sit here and say "shutdown ULM or UNO" because I wouldn't want McNeese to be shutdown.

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[Mako19]

Originally Posted by Smalls

Honestly, there are probably too many 4-year and 2-year universities in the state anyway, but I would hate to see any of them shutdown. I can't sit here and say "shutdown ULM or UNO" because I wouldn't want McNeese to be shutdown.

Nail meet hammer.

Southern, UNO, Southeastern, Grambling, Nothwestern among others should all be converted to 2 year colleges.

No politician would propose this obvious answer to the current crises because he would be seen as a racist And be career suicide.

There is no reason to have so many 4 year universities in 1 state.

[Mako19]

By the way, W. Thank you for clearing up who I was referencing in my original post to anyone who doesn't visit the Sport's Bar.

If you don't see that all of these state budget cuts to higher education is a serious crisis then you are dumber than your posts indicate.

[MathGeek]

LSU (and many southern universities) has been academically bankrupt for a long time.

[Smalls]

Originally Posted by Mako19

Nail meet hammer.

Southern, UNO, Southeastern, Grambling, Nothwestern among others should all be converted to 2 year colleges.

No politician would propose this obvious answer to the current crises because he would be seen as a racist And be career suicide.

There is no reason to have so many 4 year universities in 1 state.

Couldn't convert Southern and Gambling. One, probably Southern, would likely have to remain, as it is a land grant university that was established when LSU was an all-white university. There is probably something in the law protecting it.

What should be done though is merging of some universities, like UNO and Southeastern, LSU-S and LA Tech, maybe even Northwestern and LA Tech. McNeese and ULL would be prime candidates being only an hour apart, but McNeese is one of the few colleges left in the state with an agricultural department. Plus, I think there would be so much outrage than anyone would consider merging archrivals that it just wouldn't happen. Lol!

Originally Posted by Mako19

By the way, W. Thank you for clearing up who I was referencing in my original post to anyone who doesn't visit the Sport's Bar.

If you don't see that all of these state budget cuts to higher education is a serious crisis then you are dumber than your posts indicate.

He doesn't care is what it comes down to. Based on all the posts I see on Facebook everyday on stories about this topic, I'd say he couldn't be further from the truth. A lot of people are concerned about the future of higher education in Louisiana. The people that aren't are those that see no value in a college education.

Personally, I think the system is all wrong. Tuition should be higher, financial assistance program requirements, like TOPS, should be higher. I believe a 21 on the ACT qualifies you for TOPS. In my opinion, that is too low. You are giving way too much free money away.

One might call me a hypocrite for such a statement, as I was on TOPS, but I graduated high school with a 3.69 GPA and a 29 on my ACT. So yes, I was on TOPS, but I exceeded the requirements, and was on an academic scholarship as well.

I wouldn't just apply that to Louisiana either. I think money is loaned out too freely to young kids when there aren't jobs out there to pay that money off in a reasonable timeframe. Me and my wife, thankfully, have managed good jobs early and are paying off our loans at a pretty good clip, but only because we are dedicated to getting out from under them.

We need some serious education reform, and its not in the form of Common Core.

[ckinchen]

Pardon me mako to share some actual facts with your bashing thread. LSU is one of the only schools in the country and the only in the sec to share football revenue with the general fund. Many "football donors" don't like it but the school does in fact share revenue.

I find it funny that you want Southeastern shutdown and not USL. You do realize they are the same size right? Yep both are around 15,000 students.

Sorry for thr facts carry on with your bashing please, I'm off to coach baseball for the day.

[Dogface]

Haters gonna hate. Jealousy is a cruel thing.

[jojo]

LSU has a enrollment of 30,451 students at 8,758 dollars for a years in state tution and fees that equals 266,689,858 dollars a year just in tution, not counting tax dollars or donations. If they cannot make it on that then they dont need to be teaching business.

[Smalls]

Originally Posted by jojo

LSU has a enrollment of 30,451 students at 8,758 dollars for a years in state tution and fees that equals 266,689,858 dollars a year just in tution, not counting tax dollars or donations. If they cannot make it on that then they dont need to be teaching business.

What I don't understand is the fact that state funding is less than 20% of the budget, if I remember correctly. I think its less than 15% actually. If its that small an amount, can't you make that up somewhere?

The problem with shutting down any 4 year school is there will be opposition from its alumni base. Some schools need to be merged if they can't work out the budget. I mean, there are 87 public and private collegiate campuses in Louisiana (didn't know we had that many, where are they hiding???). 51 of those are public institutions.

http://www.publicagendaarchives.org/...colleges-state

Louisiana has 4.6 million people. Kentucky and South Carolina, who have similar populations sizes as Louisiana, only have 75 and 71 schools.

Its too many schools for a state our size. Hell, Colorado and Wisconsin, who have 7 and 10 million more people than Louisiana, have 75 and 77 colleges.

None of those 4 states even comes close to having as many public institutions that we have.

[MathGeek]

There are really many issues here:

1. Public colleges and universities are inefficient bureaucracies with bloated budgets and lots of spending that has only tangential or no benefits to the educational mission. There is a lot of inertia in budgetary and spending habits not central to providing college educations. Interest groups yelp loudly when budget cuts are mentioned.

2. Too many students are drinking and partying while the government wastes money on tuition that is not being used to good effect. You want an efficient way to cut Louisiana's education budget? Require drug tests for every college student requiring any type of government funding or subsidy and immediately terminate all government funding and subsidy for the FIRST occasion or underage drinking or illegal drug use.

3. The education business has become an entitlement program for employees of the system. They focus on keeping the money flowing which means keeping enrollments high which means passing students whether or not they learn with high levels of unwillingness to fail the lazy slackers who need failing. Serious steps need to be taken to return to academic rigor and stop paying to pretend to educate slackers who are not taking real advantage of the opportunity.

4. We need to be more honest about the number of college graduates the state really needs. Louisiana needs a smaller number of college graduates who have really earned their degrees rather than the current number of graduates whose diplomas are pieces of paper that barely represent the same as a high school diploma in the 1980s. Students unwilling or unable to meet reasonably rigorous academic requirements of college should enter the workforce at younger ages (shortly after high school) rather than pretending to pursue degrees and acting like prodigal children on the state's dime.

It will take real leadership, vision, and form resolve to form a productive path forward.

As a parent, I would not continue to pay for my own children to party their way through college while pretending to study, and I would not pay any private school to pretend to educate my children if true and rigorous learning was not taking place. Why should anyone expect the taxpayer to pay for what amounts to the same thing for the children of others? The proposed budget cuts are a reasonable step toward fiscal and academic responsibility in a system that has been moving away from both for 30 years or more.

One possible path forward is to sell some of the schools to private interests to be managed as private institutions. The government can reduce its role (and expenses) in college education through privatization. Private management knows how to cut costs.

[Mako19]

Originally Posted by ckinchen

Pardon me mako to share some actual facts with your bashing thread. LSU is one of the only schools in the country and the only in the sec to share football revenue with the general fund. Many "football donors" don't like it but the school does in fact share revenue.

I find it funny that you want Southeastern shutdown and not USL. You do realize they are the same size right? Yep both are around 15,000 students.

Sorry for thr facts carry on with your bashing please, I'm off to coach baseball for the day.

How far away from "The Flagship" is SouthEastern?
Facts? UL has right at 19k current students.

I didn't mean to single out your Alma mater, which all of a sudden you give a crap about, but it doesn't make sense to have so many 4 year Universities in such a close proximaty.

This model of having an Independent 4 year university in every corner and town of the state is unsustainable and LA citizens are sufferring And the next generation, our children, will really see the affects.

This isn't a bashing thread. I was trying to spark some conversation about the continued cuts to higher education.

Nice to see you stand up for you Alma mater though. Something different for sure.

[Mako19]

I also agree with Smalls that tuition needs to increase. Nowhere else in the nation can you get a quality education for such a bargain as you can in Louisiana. I know UL is consistently rated at the top of the list for having a low tuition for the quality of educational and I think that Needs to be corrected (now that I am no longer paying tuition! )

[Duck Butter]

Tuition is pretty dang cheap in louisiana

TOPS is a wonderful thing but we can't sustain it right now at the current rate. Anyone with a pulse can qualify for TOPS.

Too many dang universities for sure. Many of them came about due to segregation. Aren't we over that now? Do we really need Grambling and LaTech within 3 miles of one another? Southern and LSU?

LSU Eunice? Really?

No one wants to touch these issues because it's political suicide but it's only going to get worse Heard one if the governor candidates say the solution was to raise cigarette taxes. Wth

Remember when the lottery was first pitched to the state and the money was going to fund education?

[Mako19]

Originally Posted by Duck Butter

Remember when the lottery was first pitched to the state and the money was going to fund education?

I want to say that TOPS was initially funded by some type of cigarette tax or Lottery tax. It's a great program but qualifications need to be raised.

I went to school with a girl who went to college for 8 years before earning her EE Degree all paid for by grants. She was making $50-60k a year bartending but wasn't claiming it so she qualified for government grants.

Well, 5 years after we graduated she is still bartending and not giving anything back to society because she still isn't claiming enough income to pay taxes.