News Briefs
February 16, 2016
Roman Antoine Guidry
February 17, 2016
The University of Louisiana System announced that Nicholls was considering closing for a few weeks of the spring semester due to an additional $70 million budget cut on the state’s university system. Nicholls President Dr. Bruce Murphy said the university had no intention of closing, but instead listed temporary closure as a last resort among many hypothetical scenarios regarding mid-year budget cuts.
“Nicholls submitted a financial planning document listing several options that the university is considering. One of those options includes temporarily closing the campus for several days. Obviously, that is the absolute last option that Nicholls would ever take,” Murphy wrote. “However, as the governor mentioned in his Thursday public address, temporary closure of universities throughout Louisiana is one of the many possible outcomes.”
Murphy held two presentations on Thursday, one for students and one for faculty and staff, that covered decreasing state money in the university system and how Nicholls has dealt with that drop in funding. Murphy also covered how the current budget crisis could cause even more damage to higher education in the state.
The Nicholls president emphasized that while many point to the national trend of rising college costs, his university’s cost has actually decreased over the last few years. He said Nicholls’ budget of $65 million is 8 percent less than five years ago. Instead, according to Murphy, the entity picking up the tab has changed over the past eight years.
“College costs aren’t going up. College costs at Nicholls are going down. The change is who’s paying for it. So we have shifted the burden from the state paying for it to the students paying for it. The actual cost of education, in real terms of dollars, is going down,” he said.
Murphy said that in the 2007-08 school year, state appropriations covered 63 percent of costs at Nicholls, with tuition and fees picking up the rest of the tab. For this school year, state money only paid for 29 percent of the total bill.
The state has also enacted 11 mid-year budget cuts over the last seven years, according to Murphy. He said that although not all of the cuts have been large, they all throw a hitch into the university’s operations for the year.
“Imagine what that does. You have a plan, you’re trying to make it work, and then they take away key resources from you,” Murphy said.
Dr. Quenton Fontenot, head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Nicholls, said that the continuous state cuts, combined with the dark budgetary cloud currently hanging over Baton Rouge, give students pause about the future.
“As far as students’ perspective, it’s kind of scary for them, because they’re never quite sure what to expect is going to happen next year,” he said.
Fontenot said that for faculty, worry from the budget situation varies among the type of faculty. Those who have been at Nicholls for a while and have tenure feel fairly secure. However, those without tenure do not have that same sense of security. According to Fontenot, the new faculty members “are taking the brunt of the worry.”
“Those people, those instructors, assistant professors, those are some of the hardest-working faculty that we have here. They’re the least-paid, and they’re the ones who are really nervous,” he said. “I’ve had some junior faculty come talk to me, and it’s sad to see the look in their face. They’re really scared about their jobs. So far, we’ve been lucky, at least in our department.”
During Murphy’s presentation, the state of Louisiana announced that it was suspending payment for the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, a higher education scholarship program for in-state students. Since then, the state announced it would cover up to 80 percent of TOPS payments for this semester, with universities having to cover the remaining costs. Nicholls spokeswoman Stephanie Verdin said this decision amounts to a $1 million budget to be absorbed in the last four months of the school year. Verdin said Nicholls is working to find a solution to this shortfall while state legislators meet in Baton Rouge its budget crisis.
“As the special session is set to get underway on Sunday, Nicholls administrators are discussing numerous contingency plans for the rest of this fiscal year and for next year. If additional state funding is withheld following the special session, the impact would be devastating to all Louisiana universities, causing irreparable harm to thousands of college students and future generations of Louisianans,” she said.
Murphy offered solutions for Nicholls to come out of this current fiscal challenge healthy. He said the university does not want to continue raising tuition and fees on students in lieu of declining state contributions. Instead, he wants to stabilize the costs at Nicholls while increasing enrollment from 6,300 students this year to 8,000 to make up for the lost state revenue. Murphy said that the plan includes improving enrollment in multiple schools while also bringing in more online and international students. According to Murphy, he would like to reach 8,000 students in a few years.
“I’ve been saying three to five years, I don’t know if that’s right. I think we can’t wait too much longer than that. I’d like to do it next year, but it’s a very slow process. You’re almost a victim of where you are and what’s happened before and so forth,” he said.
Nicholls’ president then talked about Gov. John Bel Edwards’ plan to address the state’s $943 billion deficit for this year and $2 billion deficit for next year. Murphy called on faculty and staff to support the plan and garner additional backing from others.
Murphy addressed different hypothetical concerns with the plan, such as tax hikes and blaming the drop in appropriations on the drop in oil prices. Murphy said that in many categories, Louisiana is one of the least-taxed states in the nation. He also said state appropriations have been declining even when oil was priced at $100 per barrel. He said that between 2008 and 2014, Louisiana cut higher education funding by a larger percent than any other state.
According to Murphy, Edwards would like for the state-student split on college costs to be around 50-50. Murphy said he thinks states should pay for long-term things on campus, while students cover the costs for faculty, technology and campus activities.
“I think that the state ought to pay for the things that are state things. For example, the buildings, the roads, safety, the campus police, things like that I think the state ought to pay for. Those ought to be in place not just for students here who are paying for it, but for the next generation and the next generation,” Murphy said.
Fontenot said the key idea he took from Murphy’s presentation was the need to inform the public how education should be a main priority for Louisiana.
“That’s something that we want to do, is to let people know that we are here and that education is good for the community. You should want to live in an educated community, and that’s what Nicholls does. Nicholls is a regional university. We cater to the students and the families in this region,” Fontenot said. •
Nicholls State University President Dr. Bruce Murphy
