Though it lacks students, the LSU AgCenter has seen recent cuts just like other Louisiana higher education institutions. An absence of students actually could make filling budget caps more difficult. Universities can increase tuition to make up for the $310 million slash in state funding during the past two years. But the AgCenter doesn’t have the same group of people to charge, and more belt-tightening is expected. Gov. Bobby Jindal has prepared campuses to slice their spending plans by 32 percent or more for the upcoming fiscal year. That could mean up to $500 million less statewide.
Bill Richardson, LSU AgCenter chancellor, spoke with The Times recently about the challenges his agency faces. He said he’s dealing with the reality that his already smaller $77 million in state-appropriated funds will continue to shrink. “We no longer have any way we can just absorb things,” Richardson said. “Doing more with less is gone. It’s now going to become less with less.”
Question: How much state funding has the AgCenter lost? Answer: Initially we were targeted for $9 million, which would’ve been devastating. The administration reduced that down to $3 million. We’re still struggling to come up with $3 million to pull out from that cut. Of course, we’re still looking down the barrel of the gun for 2011-’12 at the 32 percent reduction, which will mean layoffs.
Question: How are you cutting expenses or increasing revenue? Answer: We’ve had no layoffs. We’re not filling positions. I’ve used some one-time money to fill holes, like royalty income from mineral leases. But you can’t depend on those to be recurring. We’ve already raised fees for soil and forage testing. Publications we used to distribute free may have a price, or we can make those things go online only. Everything’s on the table.
Question: What do you expect to happen to the 4-H program? Answer: We don’t plan to close any of our parish offices. Now the 32 percent cut may force us to rethink that. People are nervous. They know the economy is, maybe, stabilizing but still not great. We know we’re going to take a cut. We’re just trying to support all of higher education and get the word out that it really is going to affect the types of things that our institutions have been charged to do.
By Adam Kealoha Causey * acausey@gannett.com
*November 29, 2010 * Shreveporttimes.com
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