LSU plagued by low morale and worries about funding

[Harry]

Low morale. Troubled funding. Persistent uncertainty. Lack of stability. Concerns about political meddling.

Those are among the assessments that higher education consultants catalogued as they interviewed dozens of university leaders, faculty, staff and students across the LSU System.

Those are the hurdles a new system president will have to overcome when walking into a job that remains undefined.

And those are the types of concerns that should fold into conversations for the LSU Board of Supervisors, which is deciding what to do with the system's governance and who to hire to lead the $3.5 billion higher education enterprise.

The three consultants with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, or AGB, delivered their assessment of the LSU System's problems and potential at a recent retreat with the system's governing board, the Board of Supervisors.

Board members, who appear to be taking a more hands-on approach with their leadership roles than their predecessors, are weighing whether to restructure the university system and whether to merge the system president's job with the chancellor's position at the flagship campus in Baton Rouge.

Both jobs are vacant. John Lombardi was fired as system president in April, after he clashed with Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration over higher education policy and criticism about his leadership style. Mike Martin left the chancellor's job this summer to lead the Colorado State University System.

Read more: http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20120827/OPINION/208270310/Louisiana-Spotlight-LSU-plagued-by-low-morale-worries-about-funding

[island eagle]

Thanks for sharing, Harry. Sign of the times. We're busy killing our education infrastructure while China and other countries are rapidly enhancing theirs. If it weren't for "imported" scholars, we'd already be in worse shape than we are. We certainly not growing our own at the ;local, state or federal levels.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Thanks for sharing, Harry. Sign of the times. We're busy killing our education infrastructure while China and other countries are rapidly enhancing theirs. If it weren't for "imported" scholars, we'd already be in worse shape than we are. We certainly not growing our own at the ;local, state or federal levels.

I think a large part of our problem is that education is not stressed near enough in the home.

Students go to school, learn, then go home to parents who are more into who they are going to vote for on American Idol than what their kids are learning in school or the homework they have due the next day.

That, and there is virtually no way a kid can fail because teachers are hamstrung with minimum grades. Didn't do your homework? No problem, you still get a 70! Why try, when you know you're going to be passed anyway?

Then, when a student is somehow failing, 90% of the time the parents show up to the school to piss on the teachers, not their student who is failing...

Our education system is not perfect, but majority of the problems are at home.

[oldguystudent]

Who cares? They've got the number one football team in the country, and that trumps everything.

[NT1978]

Low morale to go with the low morals.

[Eagle1855]

Who cares? They've got the number one football team in the country, and that trumps everything.

Exactly.

I've never heard anyone discuss the merit's of the education they received at LSU. Ever. All I ever hear is how great game-day is in Baton Rouge. Which is fine, but honestly, who cares? I love college football and everything surrounding it, but It's 6-7 Saturdays a year.

[oldguystudent]

LSU had a 72% acceptance rate in 2010. That football team surely is attracting a higher quality student and faculty.

[UNT 90 Grad]

Why is this thread making me think of the movie Idiocracy? There was a deep message in that movie. Deep.