Meeting in Baton Rouge Wednesday, members of the Board of Regents were briefed on impending cuts to higher education at Louisiana colleges and universities, and Commissioner of Higher Education Sally Clausen braced members for deeper cuts to come.
“The issues we face may extend out at least two, if not three years,” Clausen said, “Unless the economic conditions change for the better, higher education in Louisiana will be required to respond to a $440 million shortfall by 2012.” Clausen’s prediction is dire, but already higher education in the state is facing almost certain cuts. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s budget calls for state colleges and universities to trim $219 million from their budgets. That’s on top of $55 million in cuts already absorbed.
Clausen urged board members to make immediate plans for conducting the business of education with far fewer financial resources. “When addressing the budget cuts in the short-term, our systems and campuses will be guided by our long-term priorities,” she said.
Board members also discussed a proposed funding formula for higher education, which members saw for the first time less than two weeks ago. Under the proposal, funding would be awarded to colleges and universities based on performance benchmarks such as graduation rates and curricula that target industries in need. The current funding formula simply distributes the cash based on enrollment. Clausen concluded, “At the end of the day it is my hope that we will be implementing budget plans that are collaborative, thoughtful, equitable and performance driven.”
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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