If the governor's budget plan for higher education is approved, UL will use the majority of the extra funding on faculty salary increases, said UL President Ray Authement.

At least $6.5 million is needed to increase faculty salaries to the Southern Regional Education Board average, Authement said.

And $3 million would be spent on reducing the class sizes of those "bottleneck" courses that prevent students from completing their studies on time, Authement said.

"It would be for those classes that students have difficulty negotiating," he said.

Authement said the plan would enable the university to reduce class sizes for more individualized instruction and add more classes to help upperclassmen complete their required course work on time.

Authement and other university presidents shared with UL System President Sally Clausen their plans for spending the $712 million that the University of Louisiana System would receive if the governor's proposed budget is approved.

The system held its Board of Supervisors meeting Friday on UL's campus.

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Marsha Sills
msills@theadvertiser.com