My friend's older sister and brother were going to then LSUNO at the time they were trying to change the name and I remember it was a bit of a battle that I would recall later in 1984 when we were going through the same. I don't know if the oppostion was from within the LSU Board or from other schools but it took them a little while also though no where near as long as it took UL.
Check out the following article on Flagship status in Texas. Right now, only Texas and TAMU are Flagship status as heads of their systems. However, a school does not have to be a head of a system to have Flagship status. 7 schools in Texas are also vying for Flagship status. Research seems to be the number 1 criteria. Other indicators of excellence are total enrollment, number of doctoral students, state dollars per student and student to faculty ratio. Also, according to this article, California has 6 flagship universities.
I especially like the last paragraph of the article which states:
"Though anointing one university is a political hot potato, everyone agreed that more flagships are needed. Money begets money, and if Texas garnered its fair share of federal research dollars based on population, the state could add $3 billion a year to the economy, Daniel said."
I would guess other than LSU, UL, LA Tech and UNO are the leading universities in the state. How do they and LSU stack up in these categories? In Texas, $100,000,000 in research spending seems to be THE threshold. Where do the above 4 universities stand in that regard? Is UL head and shoulders above LA Tech and UNO as a claim for #2 in Louisiana and flagship status of the UL System? Does LSU exceed $100M in research spending? Could someone, perhaps CajunFun, post the results.
What I couldn't copy from the article is the following:
Research Potential
Research Institutions Research Expenditures
UT Austin $476M
TAMU $492M
UH $78M
Texas Tech $52M
UT Dallas $46M
UTEP $42M
UT Arlington $40M
UTSA $32M
UNT $14M
UTSA Seeks an Advanced Degree
If picking Texas' next flagship research university was a baseball team tryout, there would be seven players — the University of Texas at San Antonio among them — eagerly vying for one, maybe two spots in the lineup.
But instead of a coach choosing the star athletes, it would be a bleacher full of bickering state lawmakers.
Picture that and it's easy to see why a state as big as Texas has only the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University to claim as public flagships, while California brags six.
On Wednesday, lawmakers took a step closer to anointing a third public flagship by inviting leaders of Texas' seven “emerging” research institutions to make a case for why they should become the state's next tier-one research university, and how much it would cost the state.
The group comprises the University of Houston, Texas Tech University, the University of North Texas in Denton, and the University of Texas campuses in Dallas, Arlington, El Paso and San Antonio.
“Why do we deserve to be the next one? Because we have momentum,” UTSA President Ricardo Romo told a Senate subcommittee led by Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo.
Despite Romo's plucky attitude, UTSA appears to be an underdog in the pack, at least when it comes to research spending and doctoral programs. By those same measures, the University of Houston and Texas Tech University are front-runners.
Last year, UTSA spent $32 million on research, compared with $78 million at UH and $52 million at Texas Tech. Though there's no clear definition of a tier-one research university, college leaders agreed that hitting the $100 million or $150 million mark would put any of the seven universities on the national playing field.
“We think we can do it, but we have to be really strategic,” said Renu Khator, chancellor of the University of Houston System. “It's all about vision. Nobody invests in whining.”
It would cost the state about $70 million per year to add a single tier-one university, $140 million for two and $210 million for three, said David Daniel, president of the University of Texas at Dallas. And it would have to be stable from year to year, like the oil profit endowment that feeds UT-Austin and Texas A&M.
But instead of choosing one or two lucky winners and handing over the money, Daniel proposed putting it in a pot and letting all seven compete. Some of the money would reward campuses for drumming up community support, offering matching funds for every dollar raised for scholarships, fellowships, endowed professorships and research support. The rest would be incentive funding, doled out according to criteria such as research funding per faculty member and the number of faculty who are members of national academies.
“I think it would be one of the best investments the state has ever made in its future,” Daniel said.
San Antonio and Dallas are two of the nation's largest metropolitan areas without a flagship university. That could work in UTSA's favor, as could its status as an up-and-coming university with ties to a medical school, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. But UTSA is also a young school with only 20 doctoral programs, a small endowment and relatively weak alumni giving.
Texas Tech also has a medical school, a law school, more doctoral students and greater research spending. But it's located in Lubbock, a low-growth area.
UH is closest to hitting the $100 million threshold in research spending, but has weak alumni giving from its days as a commuter college.
Though anointing one university is a political hot potato, everyone agreed that more flagships are needed. Money begets money, and if Texas garnered its fair share of federal research dollars based on population, the state could add $3 billion a year to the economy, Daniel said.
Thanks and I don't think I ever implied that I hadn't been treated fairly. I hope not cause I try to avoid the victim approach to life. My comment to Clutch was not intended as a statement on any treatment but rather simply thanking him for an effort he didn't have to make.
I may be off a bit but a couple years ago I read LSU's budget was over $2 Billion.
It was made up of federal research dollars , the hospital system money and Louisiana education funds.
igeaux.mobi
Which is exactly the system have now. All the schools suffer except LSU, and LSU can't get past mediocre. It has the lowest academic reputation of any major university in a reasonably-sized state.
Here's my question: you say you're the flagship. We give you (a lot) more money to lead Louisiana.
So, when have you ever led?
Tell us of when LSU has used her superior resources to help anyone or anything in the state, other than herself.
When there's money being passed out, you're the flagship, you're our leader.
Whenever someone points to the dismal state of education in Louisiana, whenever there's accountability involved however, your attitude is, "Oh, that's not our fault."
But you've never done anything with your lavish funding to correct it.
You're welcome. My sentence structure may have sounded that way, but I was not saying you implied unfair treatment. I have no use whatsoever for "poor me the victim" mindsets. I feel a more kindred spirit with the Minutemen in the early founding days of our nation. I prefer to shoot my oppressor between his eyes or in the back of his head... whatever gets the job done. But again, I never "feel" like a victim about it.
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