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Advocates Say LSUS and LSU-HS Don't Get Enough Support

Chuck Smith

LSU BOARD VISIT - Last Friday the LSU Board of Supervisors paid a visit to Shreveport for a meeting but prior to that, they spent part of the morning touring the LSU Health Shreveport Center for Medical Education, currently under construction at a cost of $74 million. Later in the day, the Board Members held a regularly scheduled meeting this time at LSUS. Now during that meeting, members of the state legislature and local citizens spoke of the need for more funding for campuses in northwest Louisiana. This advocacy for more attention to LSUS and LSU-Health Shreveport was in response to a House floor speech made last week in Baton Rouge by Shreveport Representative Republican Thomas Pressly District 6, who basically said campuses in Northwest Louisiana don’t get their fair share of support from Baton Rouge.

"The LSU system has been great at building up some of its campuses. It has become clear that LSUS and the health science-based in Shreveport the third-largest city in the state are both not a priority for the LSU leadership of yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” Pressly said.

Rep. Thomas Pressly (R) District 6 of Louisiana House of Representatives speaks from the floor on April 5, 2022.
Courtesy: LA House Video Archive
Rep. Thomas Pressly (R) District 6 of Louisiana House of Representatives speaks from the floor on April 5, 2022.

Pressly referred to LSU’s $1.5 billion-dollar campaign launched in 2019 of which $1.35 billion was earmarked for LSU’s Baton Rouge Campus and $27 million for the LSU Alumni association, leaving just $29 million to be split between LSU-Shreveport, LSU-Eunice, and LSU Alexandria campuses.

The LSU Board of Supervisors meeting closed with future plans for discussions on how LSU can better serve these campuses, and afterwards, Louisiana State University President William Tate told reporters:

“We need to get together, not just the legislature but folks here on the ground who live here along with LSU, and we need to lay out a real plan so that we know what to ask for so the investment actually returns the (best) bang for the buck,” Tate said.

William Tate IV is president of LSU Baton Rouge.
Katherine Seghers
William Tate IV is president of LSU Baton Rouge.

The next scheduled meeting for the LSU Board of Supervisors is June 9th and 10th at the University Administration Building on the Campus in Baton Rouge.

Chuck Smith brings more than 30 years' broadcast and media experience to Red River Radio. He began his career as a radio news reporter and transitioned to television journalism and newsmagazine production. Chuck studied mass communications at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia and motion picture / television production at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has also taught writing for television at York Technical College in Rock Hill, South Carolina and video / film production at Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport.