LSU’s budget ?crisis could be ?an opportunity – Rant

As an LSU alumnus who bleeds purple and gold, I was rooting for LSU during the Legislature’s budget debates last spring. I want to see it funded at the level of other leading universities. Instead, budget cuts leading to a $28.5 million shortage have administrators scrambling for solutions.

I know from 10 years of direct involvement at LSU that the university can achieve cost savings through efficiency improvements. But the solutions proposed thus far have not shown a long-term focus. The recently discarded temporary furlough plan would have generated only enough cash for 10 months, after which the university would be back at the drawing board.

Instead of scrambling for short-term cash, LSU should embrace the opportunity to reduce long-term spending. The university has received consistent, healthy increases in state appropriations during this decade. It can be hard to cut costs during periods of growth, when departments strive to spend their full budgets and avoid having some of their funds allocated elsewhere the following year. This mindset actually discourages cost-cutting practices and rewards inefficiency.

The current period of budget reduction provides a great opportunity to re-evaluate organizational performance and implement long-term changes that will drive a higher return on the state’s investment. LSU’s leadership should carefully examine every campus process. It’s not hard to find examples of wasteful systems.

Just one example is the way research grants are currently handled. When a professor receives a research grant, he or she gives about half to the university for lab space and administrative costs. The professor keeps the rest of the grant for salaries and other direct costs. The problem is that professors often keep their lab space even after the grant money is gone—even if they don’t really need it anymore.

A more efficient system would give LSU a smaller percentage of the grant fund up front, while allowing the university to charge the professor rent for any space needed. When the grant expired, the space would revert to LSU instead of degenerating into underutilized professor storage rooms.

By taking a longer view of its budget crisis, LSU leadership can bring something good out of it. And, I hope, LSU will soon return to a time of budget growth and a much greater return on the state’s investment.