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The Louisiana budget situation came to a head this week as New Orleans moved out of the Sun Belt and will head to Division III, pending NCAA approval. The reason for the move was due to the budget situation and the fact the university needed to cut general funding to the department in order to make the necessary budget cuts called for by the state.

This move was the second by a Louisiana school to announce a move to Div. III. Centenary, another non-football school - the only other non-football school with UNO amongst Div I in the state - has already begun the process and will move to Div III once their obligations with the Summit League are up.

That brings me to Nicholls State. Clearly, the school that has struggled the most with the budget situation, Nicholls AD has always been high on my list for his ability to balance the budget. Some of the remarks made on the Nicholls forum as of late have been keeping tabs.

The talk there does not sound good and with further cuts coming, the question remains as to whether Nicholls can sustain a Div I program and if there are any other schools in the state that could be threatened? The Louisiana schools have always worked with one hand tied behind their back. Just look at the numbers compared to their Texas counterparts. This situation is only getting worse before it gets better...

Thoughts?

I would write a blog about this or more than likely, a column - but there's too much research to be had at this point and getting all the numbers is taking time. Would not want to misjudge the issue in such a manner without the dollars and cents of it all...

Can Louisiana afford all of the Universities it has?

For D-1 Public schools, you have:
LSU
NW State
McNeese State
Nicholls State
SELA
ULL
ULM
La Tech
Southern
Grambling

New Orleans

So 10 D-1 public schools (soon to be 9) with a population of 4.1 million, or 400 thousand or so per University.

Arizona has THREE Universities for a population of 6.5 million.
Iowa has Three Public Universities for 3 million.

Seems overkill on Universities...

dbackjon wrote:Can Louisiana afford all of the Universities it has?

That is a major contention. Consolidation and merging talk really gets people riled up. There are no legislators willing to make that happen.

There are several schools that are four-year at lower athletic classification as well. Southern-New Orleans is in far worse shape than neighbor New Orleans. Yet, they do not want to merge the two.

We'll see what happens, but at some point, some serious decisions are going to have to be made.

How much flexibility does each LA school have? Are the completely dependent on state funding or can they raise cash on their own?

danefan wrote:How much flexibility does each LA school have? Are the completely dependent on state funding or can they raise cash on their own?

The issue in Louisiana is that tuition is dirt cheap compared to the regional average and a good chunk of Louisiana students can go to school for practically nothing thanks to the TOPS program.

The schools are dependent on the state for income, but they can also raise cash on their own. The schools seem very reliant on the state, which continues to cut funding further and further under the Bobby Jindal administration.

The revenue side of things is very important right now, but it is very difficult to make money, as you can imagine...

TexasTerror wrote:

dbackjon wrote:Can Louisiana afford all of the Universities it has?

That is a major contention. Consolidation and merging talk really gets people riled up. There are no legislators willing to make that happen.

There are several schools that are four-year at lower athletic classification as well. Southern-New Orleans is in far worse shape than neighbor New Orleans. Yet, they do not want to merge the two.

We'll see what happens, but at some point, some serious decisions are going to have to be made.

At some point, states are going to have to bite the bullet. Mississippi has a lot of public universities as well.

Talk has Oregon disbanding Eastern Oregon University. It can happen. I've always wondered why California has a CSU or UC in every city that has a pulse. Do we need a Stanislaus, East Bay, San Marcos, Sonoma, San Bernadino, Merced, Riverside with their 5,000 students? Why not build more dorms and bigger buildings at the larger regional schools that have 15-25,000? Plus it would weed out the people who are in school becuase they don't know what they want to do with their lives.

California views higher education as a right instead of a privilege.

dbackjon wrote:

TexasTerror wrote:
That is a major contention. Consolidation and merging talk really gets people riled up. There are no legislators willing to make that happen.

There are several schools that are four-year at lower athletic classification as well. Southern-New Orleans is in far worse shape than neighbor New Orleans. Yet, they do not want to merge the two.

We'll see what happens, but at some point, some serious decisions are going to have to be made.

At some point, states are going to have to bite the bullet. Mississippi has a lot of public universities as well.

Louisiana doesn't have "too many" schools...we don't have the correct structure or priorities in place to fund them adequately...we would have been fine had our current governor not campaigned on, and successfully repealed the Stelly Plan tax structure that was passed in 2002...the $300 million dollar annual hole is roughly what has been cut from higher education...all to save less than $1000 per year for folks making over $150,000 per year...the average worker hardly notices, except for the universities their kids attend are being systematically gutted.

slulionsfan wrote:

dbackjon wrote:
At some point, states are going to have to bite the bullet. Mississippi has a lot of public universities as well.

Louisiana doesn't have "too many" schools...we don't have the correct structure or priorities in place to fund them adequately...we would have been fine had our current governor not campaigned on, and successfully repealed the Stelly Plan tax structure that was passed in 2002...the $300 million dollar annual hole is roughly what has been cut from higher education...all to save less than $1000 per year for folks making over $150,000 per year...the average worker hardly notices, except for the universities their kids attend are being systematically gutted.

Public schools of moderate size really need to be public-private partnerships in these times, especially those with specialized missions. W&M is committed to remaining a small, liberal arts school, and will not take on a mission to provide higher education to a large student body. State aid to W&M is now under 15% of the annual budget. If the Louisiana schools want to survive, they need to sell those making $150,000 or more on the wisdom of donating that $1,000 per year. I'm not familiar with the Stelly Plan, or its political history, but these days, funding an inefficient higher education system through increased taxes is a platform for political defeat just about everywhere.