Student robbed at gunpoint, no Purple Alert issued by police
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NSU students join peers at the capitol in a rally for higher education
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Wednesday, March 2, 2016
How will NSU tighten the belt?
Volume: 101 Issue: 19
“ I would actually
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like to have control of tuition.”
A look at how it handled past cuts ASHLEY WOLF Staff Writer
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he downward spiral of higher education state funding began in 2008 with a $2.1 million budget cut. Fast forward eight years and 13 mid-year budget cuts later, and Louisiana ranks 48th in the nation in state funding for higher education. With a $42 million reduction on the horizon for the upcoming academic year, NSU faces a restructuring of fund distribution, while it also tries to emerge from a state-reliant model into a selfreliant one. In the past, budget cuts took a different approach. In 2009, the Louisiana Board of Regents instructed universities to create an Academic Restructuring Task Force to identify underperforming programs based on the annual graduation rates, expenses, and university core and workforce development. “Higher education has an obligation, especially during economic downturns, to operate in the most efficient manner possible,” former Commissioner of Higher Education Sally Clausen said.
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President Jim Henderson and Athletics Director Greg Burke break down how athletics are funded and outline their plans to decrease spending and increase revenue with the coming cuts to state funding. Photo by Alec Horton
University defends athletic funding after accusations surface in article ASHLEY WOLF Staff Writer
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he classic war between nerds and jocks has moved past the superficial status of a popularity contest and onto a contest between two collegiant interest groups: athletics and academics. A recent article by Fox 8, airing on WVUE New Orleans, painted a bleak picture of NSU as a university who over-funded athletics at the expense of academic success ever since the last budget cuts caused many program terminations and faculty layoffs in 2008.
President Jim Henderson says that the article misdrew the battle lines for present-day NSU, however, where the current administration is redefining what it means to run a univeristy efficiently with little help from the state. Since 2008, state funding has decreased by over 50 percent, and tuition has increased by 99 percent, leaving the university with the task of reallocating funds appropriately. The article, an investigation by Lee Zurik on athletics funding at NSU and other Louisiana universities, stuck to the classic narrative, pitting the cut of the journalism department in 2010 against supposed increases in athletic funding.
Zurik’s investigation claimed that “in 2008, before the budget cuts began in earnest, the school gave athletics $3,376,523; this year it’s up to $3,774,523.” Zurik goes further to say that “10 public universities in Louisiana have been forced to cut their educational spending by an average of 4.4 percent, while their athletic budgets have grown by 57 percent – six times the inflation rate.” Henderson said that a change in booking that started in the 2007-08 fiscal year contributed to a perceived rise in athletic funding. However, when drastic cuts in higher education caused the elimination of
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