By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Imagine what Louisiana Tech could do with $9.8 million more per year.
It shouldn’t be an outlandish hope — it would just take work on the state level to fund the university according to its terrific outcomes.
Louisiana Tech President Jim Henderson says the university continues to outperform many of its peers academically while remaining one of the lowest-funded public universities in Louisiana on a per-student basis.
In interviews last month, Henderson and State Rep. Chris Turner discussed what they described as flaws in Louisiana’s higher education funding formula and the need for reforms that better reward institutional performance.
“Louisiana Tech ranks first in all three of those performance metrics across the University of Louisiana System,” Henderson said, referring to retention rates, graduation rates and time-to-degree metrics. “Yet, we are the lowest funded institution on a per student basis.”
Henderson said the university’s concerns are not about reducing support for other schools, but about ensuring Louisiana Tech receives equitable funding based on student success and institutional outcomes.
“It’s not to say that anyone is getting more than they need to operate their institutions,” Henderson said. “This is not about other institutions. It’s about funding the institution that’s performing at the highest level at the appropriate level so that we can continue to deliver our mission.”
According to Henderson, Louisiana Tech would receive approximately $9.8 million more annually if funded at the University of Louisiana System average.
“That’s money that could go into faculty salaries, that’s money that could go into reducing deferred maintenance, that’s money that can go into developing lab spaces and other activities that advance the core mission of this institution,” Henderson said.
Turner said lawmakers have increasingly discussed revisiting the state’s funding model for public universities, particularly as schools face different financial realities and workforce demands.
“We have to start treating our universities like businesses,” Turner said. “So we have to give them some autonomy to be able to make some of their own decisions so they can perform and do what they need to do in their market and where they are to attract the students they need to attract.”
Turner said the current formula includes protections designed to avoid dramatic funding shifts between institutions, but he believes the model does not adequately reward outcomes such as graduation rates, retention and workforce impact.
“We’re not really judging universities off of how long does it take them to graduate, what’s the percentage of people graduating, what field are they graduating in,” Turner said. “What’s the return on the state’s investment for your university compared to the next university?”
Turner said Louisiana Tech consistently ranks near the top in several key performance areas while operating with fewer resources than comparable institutions.
“Louisiana Tech is funded on average for the sister colleges that it competes with statewide,” Turner said. “We are $2,000 less per student, and we have some of the most expensive courses between aviation and the engineering part of it.
“I think it’s pretty impressive what Louisiana Tech has done with what they’ve had to work with,” he added.
Henderson said the university continues to grow despite those challenges. Louisiana Tech expects its highest enrollment since 2018 this fall after posting three consecutive large freshman classes. The university is also targeting an 85 percent freshman retention rate for its most recent entering class.
“We expect ultimately to grow this institution to near 15,000 over the next five years,” Henderson said. “We think that’s a number we can get to without losing our identity.”
Part of the university’s message to lawmakers centers on the financial burden students carry because of the current funding structure.
“That equity belongs to them,” Henderson said of students. “They should not be footing a larger percentage of the operations of an institution than any other UL System institution, especially when their institution and they are performing at the highest level.”
Turner said reforming the formula will likely require broader structural changes and cooperation among state leaders and higher education officials.
“The formula is so complicated,” Turner said. “We have to start running these four systems a little bit more economically, because the way we’re doing it with Baton Rouge involved, some stuff is just not working.”
A late-session investment into higher education added an additional $56 million into the state’s flawed formula distribution model. While it is estimated to add an additional $3.1 million to Tech’s state distribution, it will also broaden the funding inequity going into next year.
Henderson said Louisiana Tech plans to continue advocating for long-term funding changes.
“We’re not going to get tired of it,” Henderson said. “We’re going to continue to bring that message forward until the inequity is addressed.”
