SU prepares to cut 100 positions

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 13, 2009 - Page: 1A

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Southern University revealed its plans Friday to eliminate at least 100 positions, nearly half of which would be faculty, because of state budget cuts to higher education.

Also, LSU System President John Lombardi announced Friday the need for all of LSU’s academic, medical and research campuses to finalize their layoff and realignment plans by next week.

LSU System officials have said layoffs could range from about 800 employees to well over 1,000 statewide in the worst-case scenarios of cuts.

At Southern’s Board of Supervisors meeting on Friday, the different campus heads rolled out their budget-cutting plans.

The main campus in Baton Rouge expects to eliminate 36 vacant jobs and lay off 23 administrative and staff workers, ranging from three physical plant employees to seven academic affairs staffers and two others in the chancellor’s office.

Chancellor Kofi Lomotey said about 90 full-time faculty on semester or annual contracts — none of whom are tenure-track — are being notified that they may not have jobs in the fall.

Lomotey said he hopes to keep about half of the 90, but exactly who will be brought back still is being decided at the departmental levels.

“The bottom line is class sizes will increase in some instances, and the time to graduate will increase for some students,” Lomotey said.

Southern Board member Murphy Bell, of Baton Rouge, said students come to Southern with the expectation they can graduate within set periods of time.

“In essence, we’ll be breaching that agreement with students,” Bell said.

Southern also is eliminating its men’s tennis and women’s golf teams to save money.

Several board members chastised Lomotey and some other campus heads for not having detailed enough plans yet for the board to approve. The Southern Board plans to sign off on the final campus plans on June 26, one day after the legislative session ends.

Walter Dumas, the board’s personnel committee chairman, warned chancellors that they better be fully prepared by then, or else.