2theadvocate.com July 1, 2010 State colleges adjust to new funding formula By Jordan Blum Louisiana's college systems must now decide if they will change any of the campus funding distributions as allocated by the state's performance-based funding formula for higher education. The state Board of Regents on Wednesday formally approved the "performance-based funding" formula distributions, which reward community colleges for growth and punish both regional and historically black universities. But the Regents caveat is that each college system - the LSU, Southern, University of Louisiana and the Louisiana Community and Technical College systems - can tweak dollars among campuses within their own systems. The Legislature had intervened to limit the negative impacts of the formula, which bases 25 percent of its dollars on performance measures such as graduating more students, by implementing campus-by-campus funding amounts into the state budget legislation. But Gov. Bobby Jindal line-item vetoed those efforts, allowing the formula to fully proceed. Under the formula, Southern University's main Baton Rouge campus, which suffers because of enrollment losses, stands to lose $2.66 million, a nearly 6 percent decrease in state funds. But, as a community college, Southern University at Shreveport would gain an extra $1.76 million, a 25 percent jump in state funds. So new Southern University System President Ronald Mason Jr. could opt to shift some of those dollars between campuses. Southern Board Vice Chairman Darren Mire of New Orleans said such discussions already are under way, although no final decisions have been made. Likewise, Southeastern Louisiana University would have $1.73 million taken away, a 2.6 percent dip, because of the formula. But the University of Louisiana System may be able to give the Hammond-based school a break by taking some of the gains away from other UL System schools. UL System President Randy Moffett did not respond Wednesday to phone and e-mail messages. The Board of Regents - the state's higher education policy and coordinating body - also moved ahead with cutting $17.6 million from its budgets, most of which will come from Regents-sponsored programs like the Louisiana Gene Therapy Consortium, the Louisiana Library Network and from college nursing education and faculty recruitment in the Healthcare Workforce Development program, or Healthworks. The only change is the Board of Regents decided to limit the cut to LOUIS from $2.73 million to $2.23 million, leaving the program with $500,000 in "bridge" dollars to survive while other funding avenues are sought. LOUIS is the state's LSU-based higher education library network, primarily for sharing library resources digitally and online. The cuts to LOUIS had started a grassroots movement to limit the elimination of Regents funds. LSU Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope was among those issuing statements on the matter. "Faculty at all institutions are gravely concerned that the proposed (LOUIS) reduction will make both teaching and research not only difficult, but impossible," Cope wrote Wednesday. "In the interest of economy, professors and instructors have been encouraged to turn increasingly to electronic resources. "The elimination of those resources will leave many adrift in a large sea of potential knowledge without any rudder, sail, or even craft." Louisiana Community and Technical College System President Joe May said LOUIS is critical to the academic accreditation of the state's two-year colleges. Regents board members said the hope is the state's college systems will pool dollars together to keep funding the library network. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/meeting-form.html for the October 24-26, 2010 HBCU Library Alliance 4th Membership Meeting and the "Conference on Advocacy" pre-conference in Montgomery, AL. The Pre-Conference and Membership meeting are open to directors and other librarians.