LSU chief cites fiscal issues

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Oct 7, 2009 - Page: 1A

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LSU Chancellor Michael Martin said Tuesday that the university needs the authority to either raise tuition or to adopt a $1,000-per-year “flagship fee” that would not be covered by state TOPS grants.

Martin discussed tuition, state budget cuts and the future growth of the university during his first chancellor’s forum of the academic year titled, “Economic as well as Agricultural and Mechanical: Money and the Many Futures of LSU.”

With the state projecting a $1 billion budget shortfall next fiscal year that would grow larger through 2012, Martin said LSU and other colleges cannot expect relief from the state coffers.

Therefore, LSU “needs the latitude to raise revenues,” he said.

Two-thirds of the Legislature would have to approve either plan: increased tuition or a flagship fee. Louisiana is the only state that requires such approvals.

“Students are smart enough … to know you have to pay for quality,” Martin said, acknowledging that the Louisiana Legislature giving up tuition authority remains a “hard sell.” A bill seeking that failed earlier this year.

“If we cannot do tuition, then we would do a flagship fee,” Martin said, citing a “minimum” of a $1,000 per year fee, which would mean another $28 million annual revenue.

LSU’s annual tuition and fees now total nearly $5,300, which LSU contends is close to $2,000 below its average flagship peers for in-state costs.

The merit-based Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, called TOPS, covers tuition increases, but not fees, such as his proposed $1,000 flagship fee.

Louisiana’s public colleges already have approval for 5 percent tuition increases in the next two years.

Matthew Hilliard, a social work graduate student in attendance, said LSU is affordable and that students could accept tuition increases to improve education quality.

But Hilliard said it would have to be a reasonable increase that would not put “undue hardships” on students.

Louisiana relies too much on merit programs such as TOPS, which Martin said mostly subsidizes students from upper and middle-income families who could afford the tuition. LSU’s Pelican Promise program helps but is not enough to aid enough lower-income needy students who cannot afford college, he said.