OPINION: Transition to adulthood necessary for personal growth, p. 5
Reveille
FOOTBALL: Two players arrested for theft, mischief, p. 3
The Daily
VOLUME 118, ISSUE 152
thedailyreveille
@lsureveille
thedailyreveille
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
lsureveille.com
University sees second pay increase in 2 years
CRIME
Rape suspect had prior arrest Staff Reports
THE DAILY REVEILLE ARCHIVES
LSU President F. King Alexander authorized an average 3 percent merit pay increase for faculty and staff Friday, the second of its kind in two years.
Gordon Brillon Managing Editor
Faculty and staff at the University’s flagship campus will see their salary increase for the second year running in the 2014-15 school year, LSU President F. King Alexander announced Friday. Employees at LSU A&M, the Paul M. Hebert Law Center and the AgCenter will all see an average 3 percent merit pay raise in the upcoming school year, Alexander said in an email memorandum.
The raise is the second in two years for University employees. Last year, faculty and staff across the LSU System received a merit increase averaging 4 percent. Like last year’s raise, this year’s will be allocated to faculty and staff based on merit, as determined by deans and department heads across the University. Alexander said about $8.2 million went into funding this raise, slightly less than the cost of the 2013-14 raise. University Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Stuart Bell
LGBT
said the Office of Academic Affairs has spent the last few weeks ensuring that each college and department completed the process of evaluating its employees to determine where the raises would be allocated. All this, he said, was done before the administration was sure a raise was financially viable. “It wasn’t until the last few weeks that we’ve been able to say, ‘Okay, I think we’re going to be able to get something done here,’” Bell said. “It’s been a tremendous amount of work that [the Office of
Finance and Accounting Services] has accomplished over the past few weeks.” Bell said the last-minute rush was a result of the administration needing to rely on various sources of income. It had to wait until enrollment numbers were finalized, the Louisiana legislative session
Read the editorial board’s opinion on the raise, p. 5. MERIT INCREASE, see page 7
University alumnus Jacob Witz, 22, who was arrested Saturday after being accused of raping a woman he met using the dating app Tinder, was previously arrested for criminal mischief in 2010 following an incident involving his girlfriend at the time. On Nov. 7, 2010, Witz, then a 19-year-old University freshman, was arrested and was eventually issued a misdemeanor for filing a false police report. He placed a call to officers saying he was looking for his girlfriend because he feared she would commit suicide. When Witz and his girlfriend were found in his dorm room, Witz admitted that he and his girlfriend had been having a verbal dispute and that he made the incident up to get police there faster. On Sunday, The Advocate reported the alleged rape victim told authorities the two planned to meet at her apartment. When the conversation moved to the bedroom, Witz began touching the woman’s chest, legs and shorts SUSPECT, see page 7
LSU SYSTEM
Anti-discrimination Hospital privatization plan ordinance vote delayed comes in $52M under budget
Council will decide on issue in August Renee Barrow Staff Writer
At last week’s Baton Rouge Metro Council meeting, extended public comments prevented the Council from moving forward with voting on a proposed ban on gender identity and sexual orientationbased discrimination. The ban, called the Fairness
Ordinance, was created by District 7 Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle and aims to prevent discrimination against LGBT individuals in housing, public accommodations and employment opportunities. District 12 Councilman and ordinance supporter John Delgado said there were multiple hours of public comments, followed by a half-hour extension, until the meeting ended at 8:30 p.m. “By law, we were required to end the meeting,” Delgado said. METRO COUNCIL, see page 7
Lauren Guillot Contributing Writer
Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to privatize University hospitals has cost $52 million less than expected. According to the Department of Health and Hospitals, the state spent just over $1 billion on the deals to remove the hospitals from the LSU System during the fiscal year that ended June 30. The privatization deals for most of the LSU hospitals have resulted in the management
companies of nearby hospitals taking over operations at the University hospital. Three University hospitals were closed as a result. DHH Secretary Kathy Kliebert said she was pleased with the outcome of the privatization deals. “The privatized hospitals are working well for the individual and working well for the state,” Kliebert said. LSU’s Shreveport hospital, now under the management of the Biomedical Research Founda-
tion of Northwest Louisiana, had the most savings of all the hospitals, costing $42 million less than expected. The privatization deals have also attracted controversy. A lawsuit was filed to petition the closing of the Huey P. Long Medical Center in Pineville earlier this year, claiming lawmakers did not follow proper procedures in discussing the closure and arguing the legislation should be declared null and void. HOSPITALS, see page 7