A member of the panel looking at ways to revamp Louisiana’s public college systems questioned the state university budgeting formula Tuesday and suggested it could be shortchanging Southern University.
The comments from Lezli Baskerville an appointee to the Postsecondary Education Review Commission, came in a wide-ranging discussion the panel had about university funding in the state as it considers recommendations for cutting costs amid years of projected budget woes.
Baskerville said the commission should consider whether to recommend that cuts fall more heavily on schools with larger endowments and more private donations, instead of colleges like Southern, which has fewer resources to cushion the blow.
“If you treat things equally, they will not necessarily be equitable,” she said.
Colleges received budget cuts this year at least partially based on a performance-based formula that uses benchmarks like student graduation rates, curriculum costs and research work rather than just student enrollment.
The three-campus Southern University System, the nation’s only historically Black university system, took a larger percentage cut than the three other public college systems in the state, said Baskerville president and CEO of the National Association For Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.
