BATON ROUGE, La. -- The day after an LSU proposal to raise tuition and fees to offset budget cuts, students and lawmakers are calling on the board of regents to come up with a plan to improve the state's university system while addressing its shrinking budget.
For the first time Thursday, the two groups combined forces before the board of regents to demand improved higher education in a climate of cuts.
"We realize that the problems we're facing are deepseated, very complex, we need everyone to do their part," said Leda Williams, a member of a student group called the College Caucus.
Louisiana's higher education system has seen nearly $290 million in cuts since 2008, and higher education officials are bracing themselves for the possibility of more.
"I'm OK with the cuts, if there's a plan and there's a vision and there's somewhere where we're going, but I haven't seen it yet," said Ally Neel, a member of the College Caucus.
The students from the College Caucus say their vision is to have a nationally acclaimed, competitive university system instead of a system with the second lowest graduation rate in the region.
Students and lawmakers said they're looking for a plan from officials to improve the system, even if it means consolidating.
"Our system, for the size of the state we have, is too big," said Schroder. "We need to start with some consolidations."
But consolidating some of the state's 14 colleges and universities isn't an idea everyone agrees with.
'We've had people from the Lumina foundation who just spoke to our board yesterday, and, according to them, we don't have too many universities," said Artis Terrell, chairman of the board of regents. "From a funding perspective, maybe we need to do things differently, maybe there's a need for more collaboration."
Students from the College Caucus said collaboration is what the meeting was about. They laid out expectations for all higher education stakeholders.
"We are willing to sit down and talk about solutions as long as they are student success-oriented, and so far, that has not been the case from many of the solutions we've seen," said Neel.
"There's absolutely success oriented plans," said Terrell. "Grad act is the most recent one."
Meanwhile, a group of 25 legislators is asking for a total transformation of the state's higher education system.
"It's clearly broken," said Schroder, "The outcomes aren't good enough... We have heard for two years now that we're looking into 'it' or we're looking at 'it.' Time has run out. This isn't a new problem that's just arising. Time has run out. Where's 'it' at?"
Time, the College Caucus said, is critical. It's hoping to see a clear plan for dealing with budget cuts well before the legislative session begins in March.
