Blanco takes office, and after 8 years of an educational Renaissance...

I have yet to see any information about what the UL System's budget will be for this upcoming year. As soon as it comes out, we'll know for sure if this is an across the board cut due to hard times, or if LSU is being deliberately targeted. I doubt the latter is the case.

We'll just have to wait and see.

 

Jetstorm...There's a storm on the horizon...I will GUARANTEE you that UL-L, if Blanco stays 8 years, will mount a push to achieve dual flagship status...

I will also guarantee that with Dardenne's banishment from his influential position in the Legislature and his ability to influence now that he's been exiled to the Retirement Committee (as payment for going against Blanco's leadership choices) LSU will suffer come appropriations time...

Mark my words, chief...Higher Education in this state is a bleeding cow wading into a piranah infested section of the Amazon...

 

I have seen no direct evidence that Blanco is a UL-Lafayette proponent, merely guilt by association because of her husband and because she is from Lafayette. And even if she is a Ragin' Cajun with a raw, seething hatred for LSU, the Governor of Louisiana, while more powerful than governors in most other states, cannot implement such a radical change in our higher education system by herself. She has a very pro-LSU Legislature standing in her way.

Therefore, if UL-Lafayette makes a move like you say they will, they face an EXTREMEMLY TOUGH fight in the Legislature to become the flagship of the UL System and the equal of LSU. I predicted back when the last name change was made at UL-Lafayette and ULM that it wouldn't last and that they would be made to switch back to USL, and I still believe that. And, believe it or not, it won't be LSU that puts the knife in their back. It will be the other UL System schools, fed up with their arrogant pretension and designs for empire. For all their big talk about fairness and "competition fosters excellence," the supporters of other ULS colleges are not stupid; they know UL-Lafayette would stab them in the back in a split second if it meant increased power and prestige for their university.

The thing is, LSU can either do one of two things when this happens; we can either stand aside and watch the blowback, or we can get in there and make deals to strengthen our position and unite the state. The other ULS schools don't like us that much either, but a very simple deal can be brokered here; if we agree to increase their funding and otherwise keep our nose out of their business, they will help us to marginalize an ambitious UL-Lafayette. Their more deluded, rabidly anti-LSU supporters aside, schools like ULM, UNO, La. Tech and McNeese St. have no desire to rise and challenge LSU. They merely want to be left alone and afforded the funding and the oppurtunity to become successful, distinguished universities.

Regardless of whether Blanco or Jindal would have taken office, the smart LSU supporters knew this day would come. The time of LSU ruling Louisiana higher education with an iron fist is over. We can still be the Flagship, but we can't just be an 800 lb. gorilla, getting everything we want. We will have to make deals and cooperate with other universities to preserve our status and at the same time create a new system that makes higher education in Louisiana better. That will be our new challenge.

 

If you think the Legislature is Pro-LSU at any time other than when its time for bowl tickets, you're foolish, Jetstorm...

Dardenne was our biggest ally, and he's got about the same chances as Papillion does of escaping his newfound fate...

John Hainkel, Alario, Bruneau, and many other landmines are out there, and they ABSOLUTELY DETEST LSU, and they are powerful powerbrokers...

Book it, friend.