Compliance Status

Louisiana State University and A&M College is in compliance with this principle.

Narrative

Louisiana State University and A&M College (LSU) is one of three four-year higher education institutions in the LSU System. The system also includes LSU-Eunice (a two-year school), the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center, the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, the LSU Agricultural Center, the LSU Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and the LSU Health Care Services Division.

The LSU Board of Supervisors is a 16-member governing body [1] [2] consisting of two members from each congressional district and one at-large member, serving in staggered six-year terms and all appointed by the governor of the state [3].

(B)(1) Membership; Terms. Each board shall be composed of fifteen members, of whom two members shall be from each congressional district and the remaining member or members shall be from the state at large, appointed by the governor with consent of the Senate. The members shall serve overlapping terms of six years, following initial terms fixed by law.

One student member elected from among the student government presidents within the LSU System serves a one-year period [4].

(B)  Student Membership.  The legislature may provide for the membership of one student on the boards created by Sections 5, 6 and 7 of this Article.  The term of a student member shall not exceed one year, and no student member shall be eligible to succeed himself.  A student member shall have all of the privileges and rights of other board members.

In accordance with the LSU Board of Supervisors Bylaws and Regulations [5], ten members are necessary for a quorum, and a nine-member Executive Committee is empowered to take limited action between meetings [6]. The board meets at least six times per calendar, with at least one meeting occurring in each quarter. The board maintains an archive of agendas and minutes, and posts official actions on the board website [7].

The LSU Board of Supervisors is an active policy-making authority for the LSU System and the university. The board establishes the academic policies in coordination with the faculties, administrative and financial practices, the allocation and expenditure authority of funds, control of land and property, guidelines of fundraising, and policies related to intellectual property [8] [9]. The Louisiana Constitution and statutes authorize the board to manage resources so as to provide an educational program and the latitude to act entrepreneurially in securing resources for the academic and research programs. For greater subject knowledge and oversight ability, board bylaws and regulations empanel 12 standing committees organized according to the primary functions of the LSU System, for example finance, facilities, academic policies, research, and student aid [10]. Chairpersons for these committees are appointed by the chair of the board for a term concurrently to that of the appointing chairperson, and committee meetings are generally held with all board members present.

In recent years, the board has been consistent in the scheduling of operating and capital budgets. It has adopted a preliminary operating budget prior to the Louisiana Legislature’s regular session [11] [12] and confirmed the budget after the legislative session to reflect actual appropriations [13] [14]. The capital outlay budget entails the LSU Board of Supervisors’ prioritized projects and is approved in August or September prior to the following legislative session in which the funding is requested [15] [16] [17]. Requests for matching funds for endowed chairs also are approved by the board [18].

The Board of Supervisors regularly demonstrates its policy-making role in the numerous academic areas of the university. The following examples are representative of the range of actions taken by the board. The board exercised its constitutional authority (Article VIII, Section 7, same as [3]) to determine the mission of LSU by approving the mission statement on December 8, 2006 [19], and by reaffirming it on October 26, 2012 [20], in conjunction with a Board of Regents review. The board also approves undergraduate admissions criteria, as it did on July 14, 2000 [21], and on August 18, 2006 [22]. The board oversees scholarship policy, as it did with the adoption of the Pelican Promise Program and the National Scholars Award in 2007 [23]. The board also reviewed the On-Campus Scholarship and Financial Aid Management System proposal and approved making the program permanent, revising the scholarship awards and outlining the eligibility and financial parameters of the program [23]. The board approves changes in academic programs offered, such as adding a Bachelor of Athletic Training on October 21, 2011 [24], and dropping the Bachelor of Science in marketing education [25] and the Bachelor of Science in family and consumer science education on December 9, 2011 [25]. Additionally, pursuant to its bylaws and regulations (Article V, Section 9), the board also reviews and approves centers and institutes for LSU, such as the LSU Life Course & Aging Center on June 4, 2009 [26], and the LSU Center for Advanced Materials on January 17, 2008 [27].

Ample safeguards against conflicts of interest are in place through both the LSU Board of Supervisors’ bylaws and regulations and the state’s Code of Governmental Ethics [28], additional information in narrative of Comprehensive Standard 3.2.3. The board’s regulations specifically bar nepotism (Chapter 2-13) in a manner that parallels the state’s statutory definition [29]. Other methods of influence are prohibited in a myriad of statutes. For example, board members and university employees and their immediate family members are barred from accepting gifts of economic value [30]. Members of the board may not enter into contracts or other business arrangements with any part of the LSU System [31]. The president is required to submit a financial disclosure statement annually to the Board of Ethics [32], as are the board members [33], who must also disclose any political contributions.

The LSU Board of Supervisors is not controlled by a minority of members. Minority control of the board is kept in check by term limits, Louisiana open meeting laws, and a minimum quorum requirement of 10 members [3] [6] [34] [35] [36].

The Louisiana Constitution of 1974, Article VIII Section 5, also established the Louisiana Board of Regents as a coordinating body for public postsecondary education [37]. In addition to the LSU Board of Supervisors, separate boards of supervisors exist for the University of Louisiana System (Article VIII, Section 6) [38] for the Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College System [3] and for the Louisiana Community & Technical College System (Article VIII, Section 7.1 [39]. The duties of the Board of Regents include the review and approval of degree programs, production of a master plan and funding formula, and collection of the four management boards’ budgets and capital requests, with subsequent recommendations. Those powers enumerated in Article VIII, Section 5 are reserved for the four management boards [37].

Like the boards of supervisors for the various systems, the Board of Regents consists of 16 members, two members from each congressional district and one at-large member, serving in staggered six-year terms and all appointed by the governor of the state. One student member elected from among the student government presidents of the systems serves for a one-year period [37] [40].

The membership of each board of supervisors and of the Board of Regents is based on two members representing each U.S. House of Representatives district [41]. After the 2010 decennial census and reapportionment, Louisiana’s number of U.S. Representatives decreased from seven to six. Rather than remove sitting members from the boards, the legislature posed and the voters approved in November 2012 a constitutional amendment, effective January 3, 2013, that permitted the fifteen appointed seats to remain intact, with two members per U.S. House district, and transitioning from one at-large appointee to three [42] [43].  Sixty-one percent of the Louisiana voters approved on November 6, 2012, the constitutional amendment that appeared on the ballot as Constitutional Amendment 7. The LSU Board of Supervisors next rotation of members will occur in 2014, at which time the governor and the board will begin the transition to three at-large seats. On January 4, 2013, Governor Jindal began the transition by re-appointing Mark Abraham and Roy Martin to the Board of Regents to new at-large seats.

The bylaws of the Board of Regents were adopted on April 13, 2011 [44]. This board also conforms to laws and policies meant to prevent external influence and conflicts of interest. The Board of Regents and its staff must conform to the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics, just as the LSU Board of Supervisors. The Board of Regents bylaws require eight members to constitute a quorum (Bylaw 3.6) [44], and proxy votes or secret ballots are prohibited (Bylaw 3.7) [44]. A seven-member Executive Committee is empowered to take limited action between meetings subject to later ratification by the full board (Bylaw 5.1) [44]. The board maintains an archive of agendas and minutes as well as posting board actions on their website [45].