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A Plan For The Future

As LSU continues to monitor and plan for any budget shortfall, we remain focused on the three-part plan developed during the 2010 legislative session: a plan that calls for change, focus, and autonomy.

Change

Change means adapting through efficiency and entrepreneurship.  We must reduce costs and increase revenues by becoming more efficient in our day-to-day operations and seeking creative methods for effective spending and saving.

LSU will:

  • Increase revenues by becoming more entrepreneurial and more diverse in our business endeavors.
  • Develop online degree and professional development programs to meet the needs of a modern generation.
  • Pursue public-private partnerships that will be mutually beneficial to LSU and the community. 
  • Streamline our fund-raising activities with the goal of building a healthy endowment to give us more financial security in the years ahead.
  • Increase tuition, while maintaining the highest academic standards for admission.

Focus

Focus refers to our resources through internal adjustments and improved enrollment management. 

LSU will:

  • Re-evaluate our mission by focusing on the things we do best and those things that are most likely to positively impact the future of our state.
  • Review all academic programs, centers, and institutes in order to reallocate funds over the next several years to those units that have a competitive advantage.
  • Revive ancillary units such as the Child Care Center and museums as self-sufficient entities, much like the Athletics program and other auxiliary departments. 

During this time some units will be reduced and others will be eliminated with the goal of emerging as a leaner and more focused university.

Also, we will increase our student enrollment with a goal of 5,000 new students per year and we will recruit more transfer students and enter into partnerships with two-year colleges to increase and better serve our transfer population. We will strive to continue the upward trend we have established of increased retention and graduation rates.

Increased student enrollment has already taken place with LSU’s incoming fall class, the biggest in years representing a 3 percent increase over last year. This includes a 45.8 percent increase in African American enrollment, a 31.4 percent increase in Hispanic enrollment and an 11.9 percent increase in Asian enrollment as compared to the freshman class of 2009.

Autonomy

Autonomy allows LSU to manage our business effectively. 

LSU must:

  • Have the flexibility to manage revenues by having more authority to determine what we charge for tuition and fees (Currently, state universities must seek approval from the state legislature to increase those revenue sources).
  • Have administrative authority to allow LSU to do business in an efficient and effective manner employed successfully by private enterprise.
  • Seek continued flexibility by the state in travel policies and similar autonomy in purchasing procedures and personnel decisions that would be beneficial to the business operation of our University.

These three measures - change, focus, and autonomy - are a combination of significant internal transformation and necessary external assistance that can provide LSU the philosophical direction and financial freedom to chart a consistent course of excellence.