samdrussBLUE

April 23rd, 2015 at 12:15 PM ^

So the president of LSU says this filiing is how they are going to survive and move forward, and also says the filing will never get them any new faculty. So how are they going to survive? Downsize and wait for the faculty size to reduce through natural attrition?

lilpenny1316

April 23rd, 2015 at 3:00 PM ^

There are real concerns within their state educational system.  I have an aunt who is facing the probably of losing her job due to many financial cuts to the educational system over the past 4+ years.  Her and her employees will have their work turned over to a private company in a cost cutting move.  I can speak to whether all of these moves are good or not, but there is real smoke to this situation.

BlueinLansing

April 23rd, 2015 at 4:26 PM ^

missed here is that many colleges and universities will be facing the very same problems over the next 10 to 15 years.  I've been part of conversations where its been said nearly 10% of all private liberal arts colleges could close due to financial problems within 10 years.

 

Louisiana has taken it to an extreme but these problems are real.  For the first time in many decades we have kids actually believing college isn't worth the expense.  That's a very bad place for any society to be.

MGoBender

April 23rd, 2015 at 7:55 PM ^

All your comments are in black and white.  Sure, a college degree doesn't guarantee a job.  Nothing guarantees a job.  But neither is it a given that you must go into massive debt to complete school.  A year of community college, working in summers and on weekends, moderate loans... You can pay for an elite education (if you have an elite public school in your state...) without help from parents and minimal loans.

I got a bachelor's and master's for about 70k in loans (after small scholarships, aid grants, and a lot of part-time job hours) .  I almost decided to not get the masters, in which case I could have come out of undergrad with 35k in loans and a Comp Sci degree from michigan.  This is just 4 years ago.  The minimum payments on 35k in loans is something like $120 a month.  That's less than a Comcast bill.  So, let's not act like it is impossible to survive if you rely on student loans to pay a bulk of your college expenses.