AGENDA ITEMS

HIGHER EDUCATION

TOP PRIORITIES

Higher education reforms: implement higher education reforms through a statewide, business-led coalition

Louisiana's higher education system faces numerous challenges, including a funding crisis that is likely to last for the next few years, uncompetitive research universities, unacceptable graduation rates, workforce demands not met by the system, and programmatic issues. These challenges pose a serious threat to the economic viability of our state, which is why a statewide coalition of business and economic development groups has come together to support a response to these challenges. The response to these challenges must focus on supporting the implementation of the performance funding formula, raising admissions
standards at four-year schools, granting management boards autonomy over self-generated funding, and establishing centers of excellence and eliminating duplicative programs where feasible in LCTCS.

ACTIVE INITIATIVES

Self-generated revenue autonomy: pursue reforms that return control over tuition and fees to higher education management boards

The Public Affairs Research Council reported in 2007 that two states in the country – Louisiana and Florida – have ultimate control over tuition and fees residing with their state legislature. A market-based approach to tuition and fees, where campuses and systems can price their product according to competition and demand, will drive performance improvement in the entire higher education system, and allow research campuses such as LSU to better compete with their peer universities for talent and federal dollars.

LSU institutional advancement: aggressively support and promote LSU's development as a premier public research university and the state's flagship institution

As a flagship research university, LSU drives the Baton Rouge region's innovation economy. Our region's competitiveness and the future of LSU lies in its ability to be consistently identified as a top-tier research university. In 2007, BRAC research identified that LSU would need over $100 million in additional operating funding and significant additional research infrastructure capacity to be among the top fifty public research universities in the U.S. Since then, significant cuts to higher education have increased that gap. To achieve this goal, the university and its allies should develop and promote the next phase of the National Flagship Agenda. The agenda, created in 2002, is a structured blueprint for improving LSU's research and educational capabilities. It is essential that the university evaluate the elements of the agenda, ensure that the strategic direction laid out previously is viable and meaningful, and lay out an organizational and political action plan to achieve its goals.

Two-year expansion through higher education reforms: support higher education reforms that increase two-year and technical college enrollment to better meet the state's workforce demands

Today's businesses continue to cite the lack of a trained workforce as an obstacle to their growth and success. Louisiana's community and technical college system is responsible for providing many of today's workers with the technical skills needed to support the region's businesses. Louisiana has traditionally had fewer students attending two-year institutions than our competitor states, and this imbalance impacts the strength of our workforce. Understanding the need for employees with technical skills and the role of the two-year system in training those workers is critical to economic development. As more students opt to pursue two-year training opportunities, it is imperative that our two-year institutions provide high-quality training to support regional workforce needs.

Management autonomies: advance legislation to enhance management autonomies for campuses that are tied to multi-year performance agreements

As funding challenges continue to impact the budgets for higher education institutions, it is imperative that we streamline internal operations of higher education institutions in areas such as purchasing, procurement, and facility management. Through the use of sound business operations, higher education institutions should be given management autonomies that will lead to cost savings and efficiencies.

POLICY POSITIONS

Performance funding formula: support a formula for funding postsecondary institutions that rewards student progress and completion, success of the research enterprise, and programmatic alignment with workforce needs

Past formulae for higher education funding have focused in large part on student enrollment rather than on student progression through meaningful courses of study, and the development of premier research capacity at certain four-year institutions. A more sophisticated formula that takes into account aspects and outcomes such as differential program cost, student progression, federal research activity, alignment with high-demand workforce needs, and increased production of degrees and certificates incentivizes higher education institutions to succeed in their individual role, scope, and mission. Such a formula assures the development of a robust postsecondary educational landscape from community and technical college certificates and degrees and four-year degrees, through graduate education and premier research activities.

Southern University renaissance: support strategies to assist Southern University achieving a renaissance in the post-higher education restructuring in Louisiana and to produce high quality graduates in key academic programs

Southern University (SU) in Baton Rouge is the main campus of a prominent, historically-black,
land-grant university system. The economic value of SU on the Capital Region and state rests on the ability of the institution to produce graduates of high academic quality and prepared for a modern workforce. It is critical for SU to attract, retain, and graduate in-state and out-of-state students with the highest academic credentials. Furthermore, SU should leverage federal and private research funding for minority-serving institutions to provide opportunities for students to acquire cutting-edge knowledge and unique worldly experiences. By aggressively pursuing strategies to raise the academic preparedness of incoming students and to provide unique academic research experiences, SU would substantially increase its ability to produce
high quality graduates who become business leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, scientists, and teachers.

Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC): aggressively pursue funding for continued growth of PBRC

PBRC is one of the most powerful economic development assets in the Capital Region, attracting tens of millions of dollars in sponsored research and boasting world-class capabilities in nutrition and preventive medicine research. In order to fully leverage PBRC's economic development potential, the governor and legislature should support a dramatic expansion of the facility that would allow it to compete with the top institutions of its kind in the world, while creating thousands of high-paying new jobs. In the entire state, few institutions offer such a singular, proven investment opportunity to increase economic development.
PBRC's new clinical research building should be viewed as an important, yet relatively small, first step, especially when compared to similar investments in other states totaling hundreds of million dollars each. Increasing capital funding for PBRC in the range of $150-200 million, while dramatically increasing its operating funding, will secure Louisiana's position in a market poised for rapid growth—one that offers thousands of knowledge-based, high-paying jobs that support the foundation of a knowledge-based economy.