What's left of Louisiana Higher Education
By
Dayne Sherman
Talk About the South
November 30, 2012
Good thing LSU could give the coach a raise and extend his
contract.
The Hogs brought home the bacon with a $27.5 million offer,
but the Tigers must have really roared in the big bucks.
I was actually daydreaming that Coach Miles was headed to Arkansas.
Leaving the LSU Tigers would be the canary in the coal mine,
and it would have shown just how far the mighty had fallen.
Had Les Miles departed Baton Rouge,
it would have been the zombie apocalypse all across Louisiana.
Finally, the lapdog legislators and business elite would take
note.
Though the Tigers appear safe for now, please get to know some
facts about Louisiana
higher education under Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Since 2008, $450 million have been axed from college budgets,
there have been no raises for most faculty members in five years, several
universities are in death spirals, and the LSU Board of Supervisors is nothing
more than an adjunct of the Governor’s Office.
The out-migration of faculty members and administrators is
staggering and a national embarrassment that grows worse by the day.
Several university administrations are on the American
Association of University Professors censure list and more are under
investigation.
Faculty and staff members are demoralized and fearful.
Students are paying a lot more for an inferior education.
The medical schools aren’t far from losing accreditation due
to the ongoing charity-hospital fiasco, and LSU merger shenanigans have the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools questioning potential conflicts ofinterest in Baton Rouge.
Tiger fans, without SACS accreditation, LSU is nothing more
than a diploma mill with some pretty oak trees, and the NCAA won’t let an
unaccredited school field a football team.
I could go on and on, but no one seems to care.
Some people have questioned LSU’s priorities giving Coach
Miles an obscene pay raise when we’re closing hospitals and placing the entire
higher-education structure at risk.
Indeed, we should question the priorities of the state as a
whole for letting the governor sink our ship while he pines away for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Louisiana
higher education and even football will be better off after Jindal’s departure.
Les Miles would be sorely missed. Our current governor, not so much.
Dayne Sherman lives in
Ponchatoula and is the author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise: A Novel.
His website at daynesherman.com.
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