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TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2016
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Volume 121 · No. 60 ADMINISTRATION
Tuition autonomy bill passes committee BY SAMUEL CARTER KARLIN @samkarlin
BOB MANN
STEVE MIMS
F. KING ALEXANDER
JAMES CARVILLE
EILY BRAUNER / The Daily Reveille
“Starving the Beast” documentary forecasts future of public universities BY CAITIE BURKES @caitie1221 The Journalism Building’s Holliday Forum welcomed political strategist James Carville, film professor-turneddirector Steve Mims and LSU President F. King Alexander for a nighttime screening of Mims’ “Starving the Beast” documentary Monday night. According to its press kit summary, “Starving the Beast” takes a closer look
at the “on-going power struggle” between politically-driven market forces and public universities which plagues college campuses nationwide. The film also follows the “philosophical shift” of public universities from a societal good to a value proposition, examining cases at the University of Wisconsin, University of Virginia, University of North Carolina, University of Texas and Texas
see DOCUMENTARY, page 12
A bill that would make it easier for higher education officials to raise tuition and fees at Louisiana colleges and universities passed through a Senate committee without objection on Monday. SB 80 by Sen. Dan “Blade” Morrish, R-Jennings, would go to a statewide vote of the public in November if passed. If approved, higher education governing boards will be allowed to raise tuition and fees on their own. Currently, the Legislature has oversight on tuition increases. Tuition and fees have nearly doubled at some schools in the past nine years, as the state reduced the amount it contributed to higher education. But the average tuition for Louisiana schools still ranks below the Southern Regional Education Board average and well below the national average. Morrish told the committee the law would go into effect after a bill by Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, is passed to decouple TOPS from tuition, which is expected. A handful of lawmakers have bills that would give tuition autonomy to schools, but all rely on the assumption that TOPS and tuition are separated. Currently, TOPS increases when tuition increases, and the cost of the popular tuitionpaying program has ballooned to nearly $300 million per year.
UNIVERSITY
Middleton maintenance backlog embodies statewide issue BY SAMUEL CARTER KARLIN @samkarlin The state of Middleton Library, which has become the University’s poster child for a $2 billion backlog in money for repairs at colleges throughout Louisiana, was thrust into a discussion of dilapidated campus buildings with leaky roofs and exposed wiring at a state Senate committee on Monday. Sen. Ryan Gatti, R-Bossier City, presented a bill before the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs committee that would require capital outlay money dedicated to higher
education to be spent on deferred maintenance — buildings and projects that have fallen into disrepair and need attention. For the upcoming year, the Board of Regents already recommended the Legislature only give schools money for repairs, not new projects. The Board also requested money for ongoing new projects. “What the public has seen,” said Chairman J.P. Morrell, DNew Orleans, “[is] a greater desire to build a new student-athlete pavilion than a library, which 99.9 percent of the students use.” Morrell noted the “leaking
foundation” and peeling wallpaper of LSU’s main campus library. There is $2 billion in unfunded repairs for schools throughout the state, and Regents Chair Richard Lipsey has vocally advocated for fixing campus buildings. Gatti’s bill ran into some trouble as higher education officials questioned how it would affect private donations for new projects, many of which are funded partly by donations and partly by the state.
see MIDDLETON, page 12
Middleton Library stands tall before the start of the fall semester on Aug. 23. 2015.
JAVIER FERNÁNDEZ /
The Daily Reveille