Higher ed changes urged

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIGHigher Education Governance Commission Chairman Gregory Davis Sr., right, comments as commission members Winfred Sibille, left, and Bob Levy, center, watch during the meeting. Sibille, who chairs the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisrs, and Levy, chairman of the Louisiana Board of Regents, clashed over a proposed constitutional amendment to strengthen the Board of Regents that critics said would make it a super board and weaken the other college management systems and boards.

A statewide higher education commission recommended Tuesday that the Legislature separate the growing cost of college tuition from merit-based TOPS scholarships so the awards can be capped and then tied to an appropriate cost index for future increases.

The Governance Commission also is pushing to strengthen the authority of the Louisiana Board of Regents through a constitutional amendment in a move that critics argued could turn the Regents into a super board for higher education.

A revamp of the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students and the Board of Regents authority were the most controversial of 21 total recommendations approved Tuesday by the commission. A final report to the Legislature is expected in January.

The commission decided not to act because of disagreements on proposals to strip the LSU System of some of its control over public hospitals and to move LSU at Eunice and Southern University at Shreveport into the Louisiana Community and Technical College System with the state’s other two-year colleges.

The commission is the result of House Concurrent Resolution 184, approved in June as a compromise after legislation failed that would have eliminated the state’s college boards and systems and formed a merged higher education super board.

Once the commission submits its recommendations, the proposals would have to successfully move through the legislative process next year before becoming law.

As for TOPS, the state’s college tuition hikes the past four years have increased taxpayers’ funding for the scholarship program every year because of its link to tuition levels.

Commission Vice Chairman Sean Reilly of Baton Rouge said the recommendation to “decouple” TOPS from tuition is “very powerful” because it is difficult to propose changes to such a popular program.

“It would give all of the Legislature more (financial) flexibility ‑— a greater handle on all the levers,” Reilly said.

“There’s almost universal agreement ... that we disproportionately fund merit-based (college) aid over need-based aid,” added commission member Camille Conaway, of Baton Rouge.

Likewise, the commission wants to boost funding for the state’s need-based college scholarships, GO Grants, and repackage them by focusing on funding a certain percentage of student’s need rather than being valued at a set stipend.

Louisiana is spending $154 million on TOPS this academic year, compared with $26.4 million for GO Grants.

The commission also recommended removing tuition authority from the Legislature. Louisiana is the only state that requires two-thirds legislative approval on tuition and fee hikes.

But the most hotly debated recommendations revolved around the authority of the Board of Regents as the state’s higher education coordinating body.

Representatives of the LSU Board of Supervisors, the Southern University Board and the University of Louisiana System Board all complained about the impact of a possible constitutional amendment. Those were the only three dissenting votes on the 18-person commission.

A proposed constitutional amendment would essentially make the state’s college systems operate “subject to the policies of the Board of Regents.” The commission balked at eliminating all the current college systems and forming a new super board, so they opted to boost the Regents instead.

The Board of Regents is staffing and helping to organize the Governance Commission meetings.

Commission member and UL System Board Chairman Winfred Sibille, of Sunset, questioned the need for a constitutional amendment when a revised state statute last year attempted to clarify the role of the Board of Regents.

“I think, when you get into the process of a constitutional amendment, you may have a single board,” Sibille said, adding, “The legislative process is covered with anthills and traps.”

Without the constitutional amendment, said commission member Barry Erwin, of Baton Rouge, “We’re saying leave everything the way it is.”

Commission member and Regents Chairman Bob Levy, of Ruston, said the Board of Regents must be the face of higher education in the state and that the constitutional amendment is needed to accomplish that goal.

“They (legislators) are tired of hearing who’s responsible for what,” Levy said. “We’re here because they think there’s ambiguity, lack of clarity, lack of accountability and it’s been that way for decades.”

State Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell said the constitutional amendment is needed to ensure the Board of Regents can enforce the state’s performance-based funding formula for colleges in terms of giving out state funds.

“The (college) systems can ignore the formula distributions, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” Levy added.

“The golden rule is — the one who has the gold rules,” Sibille chimed in.