BATON ROUGE, La. – The state commissioner of higher education has defended Southern University declaring a financial emergency, and also discussed the evolving future of Louisiana’s colleges at LSU as part of his ongoing statewide listening tour.
The Advocate of Baton Rouge reports Commissioner Jim Purcell, who moved to Baton Rouge earlier this year, said Southern declared the emergency, called financial exigency, in the face of declining state funds and student enrollment and an inadequate budget plan.
“Exigency was probably something that had to happen,” Purcell said on Wednesday.
Declaring exigency allows administrators more leeway in furloughing and terminating faculty and eliminating academic programs.
Exigency is historically considered a serious blemish that could scare away current and potential employees and students. No public Louisiana university had declared exigency since the University of New Orleans did so after Hurricane Katrina.
Purcell addressed the issue after Southern Faculty Senate President Sudhir Trivedi said he was surprised Purcell and the Louisiana Board of Regents supported Southern’s efforts to “gut the faculty.”
LSU Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope said college faculty statewide are “completely demoralized.”
