If you think this coalition will help the other state schools, you are sorely mistaken... This is about LSU and LSU only... Just read the excerpts...
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...ons_if_it.html
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Louisiana State University is handcuffed into paying too much for everything from beakers and surgical gloves to computers and employee pensions, according to a new group that wants the school to be exempt from a broad array of state regulations and oversight."
"
Louisiana deserves a public flagship university every bit as strong ... as public flagship universities in other states," Sean Reilly told the Press Club of Baton Rouge. "
That's what this plan is all about."
"The coalition was formed this month by a group of businessmen bent on
boosting LSU's main campus at a time when state support for higher education is shrinking."
"Instead of having to compete against other state and local needs for infrastructure dollars, the
coalition wants LSU to get a fixed sum of $17 million a year for construction and building maintenance that it could
spend however it wants."
"While the coalition's efforts have support from the Jindal administration,
it does not yet have full buy-in from the other university systems and campus heads, let alone the legislators who would have to consider the proposals in the spring."
"Reilly said Lombardi was "very, very supportive" of the group's proposals, but that he
remains concerned about how the changes would affect other schools."
My favorite comment on the article...
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For LSU to succeed it must be set loose from the other schools that are holding it back due to regional politics."