Compliance Status

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

Narrative

Louisiana State University and A&M (LSU) complies with the policy of the Commission on Colleges as it applies to being an institution as part of a system.

Overview

The LSU Board of Supervisors is a body corporate recreated under the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 in Article VIII, Section 7. Louisiana Revised Statutes R.S. 17:3351 and R.S. 17:3352 enumerate the duties of the board [1] [2] [3].  The board’s bylaws (Article I, Section C) identify the institutions of the LSU System, as does R.S. 17:3215 [4]. LSU is one of three four-year higher education institutions in the LSU System (including the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine) but is the only comprehensive, research university and is considered the flagship institution of the LSU System. LSU is a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant university. 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, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and the LSU Health Care Services Division (Figure 1) [5].

Figure 1. Institutions within the Organizational Structure of the LSU System

The LSU System

The LSU System is Louisiana’s only postsecondary enterprise with a presence in all 64 of the state’s parishes. As an institution, the LSU System, which includes the state’s oldest land-grant university, has a constitutional mandate to serve the educational, health care, and economic development goals of Louisiana as its principal public university and research institution. The LSU System’s vision statement declares the following:

Through teaching, research, health care delivery, and public service, the Louisiana State University System collectively will enhance the dissemination of knowledge by increasing student access and success, improving the quality of life for citizens of Louisiana [6].

The Mission Statement of the LSU System follows:

As a mission, the Louisiana State University System fosters first-class learning, the discovery of innovations, and the development of Louisiana’s human capital by applying research and scholarship in advancing intellectual, personal, and professional growth [6].

The LSU System Board of Supervisors Bylaws and Regulations, last updated in October 2008, sets the parameters for board organization and procedure, identification of the principal officers of the LSU System and their duties, and guidelines for the management of personnel, assets, and academic policies (Figure 2) [7] [8]. The Louisiana Constitution mandates that the board consists of 16 members, of which 15 are gubernatorial appointments serving staggered six-year terms, with one student member serving a one-year term [1] [9]. Article VII, Section 2 outlines the duties of the system president that empower him or her to enforce the decisions of the board, maintain control of finances, and oversee the actions of the chancellors [10]. However, Article VII, Section 4 gives the chancellors executive authority over their institutions as long as they are following the law, bylaws, regulations, and permanent memoranda, which give the LSU chancellor considerable latitude to employ personnel, deploy assets, and set campus policy [11].

Figure 2. Administrative Organizational Structure of the LSU System [8].

The legal authority and operating responsibility derive from the Louisiana Constitution and are clearly delineated down to the lowest operational level. Article VIII, Section 7 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 recreated the LSU Board of Supervisors with corporate powers, and R.S. 17:3351 and R.S. 17:3352 are inclusive lists of enumerated powers, such as the authority to solicit and receive gifts, sue and be sued, employ personnel, acquire assets, organize the academic departments, award degrees, and “perform such other functions as are necessary or incidental to the supervision and management of the university system it supervises and manages” [1] [2]. The statutes also empower the board to extend beyond the listed powers to do what is necessary for the supervision and management of institutions of postsecondary education.

The LSU Board of Supervisors maintains a publicly accessible set of bylaws outlining the organization and procedures of the board to include the conduct of meetings and passage of resolutions [12] [13]. Article VII, Section 8D indicates what types of actions require board approval to include the lease or sale of assets (subsection 2, paragraph a), entering into contracts and/or obligating of the system or university (subsection 2, paragraph b-f), intellectual property (subsection 3), personnel to include tenure (subsection 4), and academic programs (subsection 5) [14].

LSU within the LSU System

The Board of Supervisor Bylaws identify the principal system employees along with their responsibilities and obligations. Article I, Section C1 identifies Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College (LSU) as an institution of the LSU System [15]. Section C1 also indicates that the School of Veterinary Medicine is a part of the university, and Section C9 explains its statewide responsibilities as the only veterinary program in Louisiana [15]. Article I, Section E defines a chancellor as the administrative head of a system campus [16]. Article VII, Section 4 enumerates the responsibilities of a chancellor [17].

The Board of Supervisors also maintains a set of regulations which provide for the organization of the LSU System and the academic components of the system institutions, including LSU [7]. The duties and procedures of the academic component are outlined in Chapter 1 [18]. For example, the membership, duties, and procedures of the faculties are outlined in Chapter 1-2.2, while the faculties of the colleges and schools are listed in Chapter 1-2.3, and the departments in Chapter 1-2.4. Chapter II clearly defines who qualifies as academic staff; criteria for tenure; and the procedures for approval of personnel actions, including the definition of the chain of approval for those actions [19]. Chapter V of the regulations outlines the financial procedures of the campuses [20]. Chapter VI provides for the acceptance of gifts and grants [21], while Chapter VIII relates to affiliated organizations that may also accept gifts in promotion of the University [22].

Article VII, Section 8B authorizes the system president to act where the board bylaws, regulations, or resolutions are silent and to delegate authority to the chancellor [23]. The edicts of the system president are codified in the 72 permanent memoranda [24]. The LSU chancellor also maintains a set of policy statements allowing for the general application of rules across the university, but must conform to the bylaws, regulations, and permanent memoranda. Recommendations for new policy statements or modification to existing ones are guided by a protocol in which vice chancellors may have an opportunity to review proposals, but the chancellor has full authority to act. The chancellor is the chief executive officer of the university responsible for administering the units of the institution. Serving as both the LSU System president and LSU chancellor, he reports directly to the LSU System Board of Supervisors. This dual responsibility is managed as described in Core Requirement 2.3. There are 117 LSU policy statements, and these are publicly accessible [25].

LSU has a mission statement that is commensurate with that of the LSU System:

As the flagship institution of the state, the vision of Louisiana State University is to be a leading research-extensive university, challenging undergraduate and graduate students to achieve the highest levels of intellectual and personal development. Designated as a land-, sea-, and space-grant institution, the mission of Louisiana State University is the generation, preservation, dissemination, and application of knowledge and cultivation of the arts [26].

In implementing its mission, LSU is committed to

• offer a broad array of undergraduate degree programs and extensive graduate research opportunities designed to attract and educate highly qualified undergraduate and graduate students;
• employ faculty who are excellent teacher-scholars, nationally competitive in research and creative activities, and who contribute to a world-class knowledge base that is transferable to educational, professional, cultural, and economic enterprises; and
• use its extensive resources to solve economic, environmental, and social challenges.

(Mission Statement approved by the Board of Supervisors December 2006 and reaffirmed October 2012)

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College was established as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy by the Louisiana State Assembly in 1853 and opened in January 2, 1860, in Pineville, Louisiana [27]. The institution was moved to Baton Rouge in 1869 and renamed the Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1870. Since its first commencement in 1869, LSU has awarded nearly 233,000 degrees.

LSU authority for granting degrees is provided for in the Louisiana State Constitution of 1974. Article VIII, Section 7 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 recreated the LSU Board of Supervisors with corporate powers, including the awarding of degrees [28].

The Louisiana Board of Regents was created in the 1974 Louisiana State Constitution as a coordinating body for postsecondary education. As it relates to degree programs, Article VIII, Section 5 of the constitution gives the regents the power [1]

(1) To revise or eliminate an existing degree program, department of instruction, division, or similar subdivision;

(2) To approve, disapprove, or modify a proposed degree program, department of instruction, division, or similar subdivision.

The Board of Regents powers are limited to Article VIII, Section 5, and any power not vested with them is the jurisdiction of the management boards [1]. Specifically,

(E) Powers Not Vested.  Powers of management over public institutions of postsecondary education not specifically vested by this Section in the Board of Regents are reserved to the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, the Board of Supervisors of Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, the Board of Trustees for State Colleges and Universities, the Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges, and any other such board created pursuant to this Article, as to the institutions under the control of each.

The authority to award degrees is not vested in the Board of Regents, leaving that power to the management board. For further clarity, Louisiana Revised Statute R.S. 17:3351A(15) lists awarding authority as one of the powers of the Board of Supervisors [29]:

§3351. General powers, duties, and functions of college and university boards

A. Subject only to the powers of the Board of Regents specifically enumerated in Article VIII, Section 5 of the Constitution of Louisiana, and as otherwise provided by law, each postsecondary system management board as a body corporate shall have authority to exercise power necessary to supervise and manage the day-to-day operations of institutions of postsecondary education under its control, including but not limited to the following:

 (15) Award certificates, confer degrees and issue diplomas certifying the same.

Louisiana Revised Statute R.S. 17:3352 specifically enumerates the rights of the management boards to confer degrees and also recognizing the degree as an accepted credential in the state [30]:

§3352.  Degrees; conditions

A.  Each board shall confer degrees evidencing satisfactory completion of the principal courses of study and award diplomas in certification thereof at the colleges and universities under its jurisdiction.  However, no degree shall be issued to a student who has failed to comply with all grade point requirements for obtaining such degree as published in the institution's catalog.  Each board may provide for the issuance of certificates to evidence satisfactory pursuance of studies not leading to a degree. 

Allied information related to LSU as part of a system can be found in the narratives associated with Core Requirements 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 and with Comprehensive Standards 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.2.4, 3.2.5, 3.2.6, and 3.2.7.