How Much Should We Cut Higher Education?

[CajunFun]

Check out the essay on (as usual)...

[CajunNation]

Check out the essay on (as usual)...

I noticed you ended the article with a call for leadership.

The problem is that the path we need to travel in Louisiana that would be shown by this new leader in order to fix the system would make 95% of the elected officials in this state wet their trousers and cry for mommy.

Arguing over cuts to programs and faculty every few years is ludicrous. Any momentum built up in academic circles gets squashed every round of cuts we endure.

It gets squashed by overspending blowhards in Baton Rouge. It gets squashed by our screwy constitution that restricts where you can cut.

You want to fix this state? Do you truly want to end the insanity? Are you really the defender of knowledge you make yourself out to be?

Nobody can seriously speak out against the cuts without even mentioning 1 time that this state has way, way too many 4-year universities.



Fix this state? For real?



1) Close schools.

I'll give you at list.

Nicholls
Grambling
Southern-NO
Southern-Shreveport
LSU-A
LSU-E

All are a waste of taxpayer money.



2) Call a constitutional convention.

No longer can education and healthcare take the hits. This state is dying. We have to do it different.

Let's level the playing field. Everything is on the table. Make those SOB's in BR justify every single penny they waste.




3) Build an emergency fund specifically for education that can be tapped into the next time we hit a recession.

It will take time, but it is the resposible thing to do. And, it will probably have to be managed by the Board. If the cronies in the legislature can get their grubby little hands on it, they will throw it away on a new cage for that stupid tiger or give it to the freakin' Saints.



Not doing the above will NOT solve anything, and will only lead to us having this same GD discussion over and over and over......................



Now, we both know why Bobby doesn't push hard for this. The first Governor that takes a stand like this will be CRUCIFIED for it, and he wants to be the VP in 2012.

This is one area where I think Bobby is acting like a scared little girl.

You're right. We need a leader. Unfortunately, the legislature is full of spineless ninnys.

[ULtimateCajun]

I like #1


igeaux.mobi

[CajunSaint]

_ I like #1


igeaux.mobi _

i do, too, uc. but let's tweak it a bit. move northwestern to shreveport and have a full-fledged 4 yr. school replete with a med & law school, or just a med school. merge ulm with tech. i know, i know, but the call is for change to save the overall higher ed. system in this state. it's gonna hurt. turn mcneese into a community college that feeds into ul. take your pick: merge grambling with tech, or southern with southeastern. this would leave us with one hbu which should appease whomever needs appeasing. so we would have ul, lsu, southeastern, tech, shreveport, and grambling/southern as 4 yrs. seems very streamlined and efficient to me. i know i'm probably overlooking something political, or territorial, but this is how i see it. have at it.

[LSUfan4ever]

I wouldn't got that far to say close SUBR nor Grambling! Their football programs have a richer history that UL's and both Universities are a major force in the HBCU world! I would say close Southern in New Orleans and Shreveport though and also LSU in Shreveport and Alexandria, that will save millions of dollars and those colleges aren't needed! It's not the colleges fault this mess is going on in Louisiana, it's the politicians fault and Louisiana has no leader! There are millions of programs they could cut out in Louisiana that are needed but the corruption of Louisiana politics has hurt the state, it's not any Universities fault!

[Rebel02]

So we should keep SU and Grambling because they have better football traditions? This is the problem with this state. People with ties to a certain institution(s) value a football program over the real reason a university exists.

I wouldn't got that far to say close SUBR nor Grambling! Their football programs have a richer history that UL's and both Universities are a major force in the HBCU world! I would say close Southern in New Orleans and Shreveport though and also LSU in Shreveport and Alexandria, that will save millions of dollars and those colleges aren't needed! It's not the colleges fault this mess is going on in Louisiana, it's the politicians fault and Louisiana has no leader! There are millions of programs they could cut out in Louisiana that are needed but the corruption of Louisiana politics has hurt the state, it's not any Universities fault!

igeaux.mobi

[LSUfan4ever]

Grambling and Southern Universities are great and legendary institutions, both have a lot to offer! Southern University has a fine law program and engineering program! Grambling produces great teachers, they have a good nursing program and their CIS program graduated more students than any other University in the state of Louisiana in the past 10 years. More than any other university in the state shows that they aren't a waste of tax payers money! So i'm not just focusing on sports! You need to know the facts before you just say close those Universities because they are indeed producing productive people! Jindal needs to get off his butt and cut all those programs that aren't needed and stop trying to please his buddies!

[zephyr]

_ Grambling and Southern Universities are great and legendary institutions, both have a lot to offer! Southern University has a fine law program and engineering program! Grambling produces great teachers, they have a good nursing program and their CIS program graduated more students than any other University in the state of Louisiana in the past 10 years. More than any other university in the state shows that they aren't a waste of tax payers money! So i'm not just focusing on sports! You need to know the facts before you just say close those Universities because they are indeed producing productive people! Jindal needs to get off his butt and cut all those programs that aren't needed and stop trying to please his buddies! _

Neither university has the academic pedigree of UL and their football teams are "legendary" in the SWAC and the games they play between each other. Perhaps the more legendary aspects of these universities are their bands rather than their football teams. To put their tradition against UL's is not putting things in perspective. However, I do not think that closing these schools is a viable option either. I do think both are valuable assets to the college landscape in this state.

[CajunZ1]

Please, step away from the exclamation point button...!

Grambling and Southern Universities are great and legendary institutions, both have a lot to offer! Southern University has a fine law program and engineering program! Grambling produces great teachers, they have a good nursing program and their CIS program graduated more students than any other University in the state of Louisiana in the past 10 years. More than any other university in the state shows that they aren't a waste of tax payers money! So i'm not just focusing on sports! You need to know the facts before you just say close those Universities because they are indeed producing productive people! Jindal needs to get off his butt and cut all those programs that aren't needed and stop trying to please his buddies!

igeaux.mobi

[CajunNation]

Neither university has the academic pedigree of UL and their football teams are "legendary" in the SWAC and the games they play between each other. Perhaps the more legendary aspects of these universities are their bands rather than their football teams. To put their tradition against UL's is not putting things in perspective. However, I do not think that closing these schools is a viable option either. I do think both are valuable assets to the college landscape in this state.

Southern-BR is needed, not Grambling.

You've got three 4-year schools within 30 minutes of each other up there, and Grambling, is by far the least attended and the least accomplished in Academics. It is a complete waste of taxpayer money.

One of those 3 has to go, and if we are to do the right and responsible thing, Grambling must close.

[Boomer]

_ Grambling and Southern Universities are great and legendary institutions, both have a lot to offer! Southern University has a fine law program and engineering program! Grambling produces great teachers, they have a good nursing program and their CIS program graduated more students than any other University in the state of Louisiana in the past 10 years. More than any other university in the state shows that they aren't a waste of tax payers money! So i'm not just focusing on sports! You need to know the facts before you just say close those Universities because they are indeed producing productive people! Jindal needs to get off his butt and cut all those programs that aren't needed and stop trying to please his buddies! _

Yea ---I say we follow the guidelines as established by the consent decree and cut out LSU's PHD in Computer Science----it is all bs---I could produce more PHDs in any subject than any UNiversity in the world---make it EASY!!!! dum da dum dum!!!!!

[4LSU]

_ Neither university has the academic pedigree of UL and their football teams are "legendary" in the SWAC and the games they play between each other. Perhaps the more legendary aspects of these universities are their bands rather than their football teams. To put their tradition against UL's is not putting things in perspective. However, I do not think that closing these schools is a viable option either. I do think both are valuable assets to the college landscape in this state. _

Do we have much in the way of options as long as what can be cut and what can't remain the same? I know we have a lot of colleges for our population, but what makes anyone think that cutting the number of colleges will free up more money for those which remain? It may sound like a reasonable thought process, but I wouldn't bet money on it or on getting anything passed which makes the $$$$$ go to education.

And they are "legendary" as schools both state wise and nationally. Anything can be done, but the blood loss by the one doing it would be severe.

[CajunNation]

Do we have much in the way of options as long as what can be cut and what can't remain the same? I know we have a lot of colleges for our population, but what makes anyone think that cutting the number of colleges will free up more money for those which remain? It may sound like a reasonable thought process, but I wouldn't bet money on it or on getting anything passed which makes the $$$$$ go to education.

And they are "legendary" as schools both state wise and nationally. Anything can be done, but the blood loss by the one doing it would be severe.

You're missing the point.

The schools are being told to make cuts because the STATE can't make the budget work.

Closing schools won't increase monies to other schools, but it will sure decrease the sum total of expenditures that the state has in any given year, thus negating the need for cuts.

[LSUfan4ever]

All the irrelevant bullcrap you are speaking and these colleges will still remain opened with your wishful thinking! In my job field of criminal justice, i work with many graduates from Grambling, Southern and from an HBCU in Mississippi but i forgot the name but i can honestly say they have intelligence and know their job so i don't feel their Universities are hampering them educationally! It's not their fault this this state is in poor shape! There are so many other things that could get cut to free up money, closing Universities isn't the answer! Shut down these Universities and see what would happen! Many people would easily just take their business elsewhere outside the state lines of Louisiana! That move would only created more problems that Louisiana can't take and doesn't need! Thank god CajunNation isn't the Governor, Louisiana would be in worse shape! It's people like you that keep Louisiana so far behind and stuck in the Dark Ages!

[Clutch0364]

_ All the irrelevant bullcrap you are speaking and these colleges will still remain opened with your wishful thinking! In my job field of criminal justice, i work with many graduates from Grambling, Southern and from an HBCU in Mississippi but i forgot the name but i can honestly say they have intelligence and know their job so i don't feel their Universities are hampering them educationally! It's not their fault this this state is in poor shape! There are so many other things that could get cut to free up money, closing Universities isn't the answer! Shut down these Universities and see what would happen! Many people would easily just take their business elsewhere outside the state lines of Louisiana! That move would only created more problems that Louisiana can't take and doesn't need! Thank god CajunNation isn't the Governor, Louisiana would be in worse shape! It's people like you that keep Louisiana so far behind and stuck in the Dark Ages! _

No, it's ignorant people like you that keep Louisiana in the Dark Ages! Have a nice day!