By: Piper Hutchinson | Louisiana Illuminator
Following budget crises at several of its schools, the University of Louisiana System is studying how to restructure to minimize costs and maximize oversight.
The system’s governing board voted Thursday to create a task force made up of university administrators, faculty, students and athletics officials from each of its nine universities. The group will look at ways to create shared services across the universities, implement a cross-system course numbering system and create long-term financial stability for college athletics.
University of Louisiana System President Rick Gallot said he has been considering this plan since he took the job in 2023.
The restructure is intended to give the system more power to deal with financial problems at its schools. In the past two years, the University of New Orleans and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette have had to dig themselves out of budget shortfalls, totalling $30 million and $25, respectively, that led to faculty and staff furloughs and layoffs.
The University of Louisiana at Monroe has also had to deal with a $12 million budget shortfall but chose not to furlough any of its employees.
Every university in the UL System is running a deficit in athletics, which are contributing significantly to the budget crunch at some schools.
These fiscal problems largely snuck up on the system and its board members.
“UNO was my alma mater, and I was on the board of supervisors, and somehow we didn’t know all that had gone wrong at UNO,” UL board member Julie Stokes said.
In response to the budget crisis at UNO, the state legislature approved moving the school back to the LSU System, which it had been a part of until 2011. The switch is expected to take place in July.
“I would say the same thing is true here, that the system by which we are managing these schools is not providing us adequate ability to supervise what’s happening at these schools,” Stokes said of ULL, which hosted Thursday’s meeting.
Though it’s not yet known what actions the board will end up taking after receiving the task force report, if it decides to streamline services, such as human resources, accounting and IT, it is possible some people will lose their jobs.
But Gallot encouraged those affected by any restructuring to participate in the study phase. The system will hold town halls about the process at each system university and put up a website to receive feedback, he said.
The LSU System also announced its intent to restructure this month, although its process is very different.
While the UL System will be going through a public process, LSU announced a rough outline of its new structure on Nov. 4, when it also hired a new president and chancellor, and said it would vote to finalize the plan within 30 days, without getting input from the public.