LSU to brew and sell its own beer

Discussion in 'The Tiger's Den' started by Cajun Sensation, Jul 20, 2011.

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  1. stevescookin

    stevescookin Certified Who Dat

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    After all, where did Tiger water go as far as the national bottled water market is concerned. ;)
     
    stevescookin, Jul 23, 2011
    #41
  2. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    Then wise up. I'm right in the middle of it, chum, and I know what I'm talking about. My department costs LSU $900,000 a year. Last year we brought in $1.3 million and we're taking a 34% budget cut and possible elimination.

    You just don't understand LSU politics.

    Strike three. LSU has made branding a major effort in the last five years. New logo, new licensing arrangements, new ventures that get LSU in the public eye. Things beyond athletics.

    You are being a bit naive, my friend.
     
    red55, Jul 23, 2011
    #42
  3. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    Exactly, it is a very limited regional market that LSU-themed products will sell in. Gatorade was a new product that was a game changer. Beer has been around for millenia, there are thousands of brands, most of which are in no way unique. LSU isn't selling beer, they are selling LSU.
     
    red55, Jul 23, 2011
    #43
  4. KingEmeritus

    KingEmeritus ofthePoint

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    This was my point earlier. An LSU-themed beer will not have national appeal.

    There is definitely truth to this. LSU fans will want to buy LSU beer. However, beer is a big part of this equation too. I doubt LSU whole wheat pasta will have the same appeal. ABITA beer is distributed nationally, so I think LSU could have the same success. Not with an LSU theme, however. It could be inspired by something LSU, just not an all out LSU theme.

    What kind of beer is it going to be? Lager? Ale?
     
    KingEmeritus, Jul 23, 2011
    #44
  5. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    Take your pick. Just like Tiger Water is only repackaged Kentwood water, LSU beer will be repackaged Tin Roof Beer.
     
    red55, Jul 23, 2011
    #45
  6. KingEmeritus

    KingEmeritus ofthePoint

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    I thought the recipe was created by students. If in fact it is repackaged Tin Roof beer, then it will either be an ale or amber. That's all they make.
     
    KingEmeritus, Jul 23, 2011
    #46
  7. pharpe

    pharpe Founding Member

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    So you are saying that your department brought in $1.3M of income though sources outside the university budget? If that is the case, and your operating expenses are only $900k, then why would a budget cut effect your department at all? Even if your department took a 100% cut from the university budget you should still be able to operate with a profit via your outside funding.


    A brewery is how the administration plans to rebrand LSU? The plan is to change LSU's image as a school associated with athletics to one that is known for it's beer? I know that the administrative decisions guiding LSU are not always the best but this I have are hard time believing. For the last 10 years LSU had been striving to develop an image of academics while down playing the party school stigma. I guess they just threw all that out the window and decided to be the beer university.

    I'm not naive. Just questioning things that make no sense. I realize that politics create decisions that are not always best for LSU as a whole. However these bad decisions are made because they benefit someone. Who benefits by cutting departs that are generating there own operating income? Or by creating a brewery that is expected to fail all in the hopes are getting LSU more associated this alcohol?
     
    pharpe, Jul 24, 2011
    #47
  8. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    Logic isn't at play here, I'm telling you. It's internal LSU politics. The academic departments are rallying together to make sure that most of the cuts fall on the research departments. LSU doesn't want to cut us but they are required to cut about 22 million dollars and it has to come from somewhere. So its coming from our budgets. We just don't have the alumni constituency that the academic departments have and cutting us lets the chancellor maintain that he is "preserving the core teaching functions". The losses at Pennington, CAMD, LGS, CSI and other research units will hurt the university effort to maintain and improve its standing as a Research I University and attract top graduate students. But LSU has been slashed by Jindal and something must give.

    We don't get to keep all the grant money that we bring in. LSU takes 49% right off the top. Worse, federal research grants require a 1:1 match, so cutting our state funding costs us the match money that we need to be competitive. So LSU is telling us to go out and get more funding, only with less support from LSU and oh, by the way, still taking 49% overhead off the top of anything we bring in.

    All the rainmakers are moving on soon, including myself. If we have to go out and compete for grants without institutional support, then we really don't need LSU at all. Some of us are going to institutions that offer better support. Others are going to be doing our own things and will be keeping that 49% for ourselves.

    No, it is just one part of many things the university is doing to evolve in a new financial and academic model for the 21st century. More public-private partnerships, more community involvement, more revenue-generation (licensing). Like I said, it ain't the beer that LSU is promoting, it is LSU. if you want to sell LSU hang gliders, LSU sandals, LSU wine, or LSU hot dogs . . . LSU will make a marketing/licensing arrangement with you.

    Then you understand a bit of our frustration. LSU is very big, very impersonal, and they make decisions that work at one level and are detrimental on another. The governor and the legislature understand nothing of what they are doing to higher education. Normally all we have to do is to perform our jobs well and we keep our jobs. Now we are doing an outstanding, award-winng job and are getting our budgets slashed. The brain drain began about two years ago and is about to shift into high gear. The best and the brightest always have options.
     
    red55, Jul 24, 2011
    #48
  9. lsudolemite

    lsudolemite CodeJockey Extraordinaire

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    The LSU graduate school has been a joke for many years. It has to rank among the most dysfunctional units on campus, with its apathetic at best, and hostile at worst, attitude toward students and highly political atmosphere. The dean of the graduate school is a revolving door. The previous dean didn't last a year, supposedly because he stepped on too many toes and wanted to make things "too student-friendly." As far as I can tell it's run by a bunch of clueless bureaucrats who apparently have a significant amount of political capital with the LSU administration. Hell, it wasn't even until a few years ago that LSU finally started waiving tuition for students on research assistantships, which nearly every other research university does. For a university that talks such a good game about attracting the best and brightest and its desire to be a top-tier research university, it hardly walks the walk. I could go on with some personal encounters I've had, but you get the point.

    As for Jindal, he had to be publicly humiliated by the SGA president of all people before he was dragged kicking and screaming away from his out-of-state fundraisers to address the higher ed problem. I love Louisiana, I grew up and lived here my whole life, but the state doesn't take advanced degrees and research seriously, and I will likely be joining that exodus very soon, too.
     
    lsudolemite, Jul 24, 2011
    #49
  10. pharpe

    pharpe Founding Member

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    Ah so that makes more sense now. I knew there had to be more to it.
     
    pharpe, Jul 25, 2011
    #50
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