Universities eye tuition discounts for out-of-state students

Louisiana universities are eyeing tuition discounts for neighboring out-of-state students in an effort to revamp enrollment as those nearby states recruit Louisiana students who are uncertain if their TOPS scholarships will be there in the fall.
Rep. Rob Shadoin, R-Ruston, filed HB 989 to make it easier for Louisiana schools to charge less than the southern regional average tuition for out-of-state students. Currently, out-of-state tuition and fees at public institutions must be at least equal to the average of schools in the Southern Regional Education Board.
As Louisiana schools have taken budget cuts over the last nine years and tuition remains below the regional average, higher education leaders are looking for ways to supplement some of those dollars.
LSU System President F. King Alexander often has pointed to schools in other states “poaching” faculty by offering them better pay and more desirable hours and class sizes. He warned lawmakers Tuesday at a late-night committee hearing that higher-performing students may choose to leave the state amid uncertainty over TOPS and whether schools can keep the doors open.
Alexander pointed to areas like Houston, which has more high school seniors than all of Louisiana’s high schools combined, adding that Louisiana schools’ tuition is $2,500 less than other southern schools.
“Just let us go,” he told the House Appropriations committee Tuesday evening, referring to the right to set tuition independent of the Legislature. . “We’re not going to outcharge anybody. We know what our markets are.”
The University of Southern Mississippi has been attempting to capitalize on Louisiana’s financial struggles to fully fund its schools and popular tuition-paying scholarships by recruiting Louisiana students, including one billboard on the edge of LSU’s campus. The school has placed a number of billboards in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans market.
“[USM] grants out of state tuition waivers to students in the Florida parishes so they can take more of our students,” said Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans. “I also know we can compete better trying to recruit students from out of state.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards’ budget plan includes a 66 percent reduction to TOPS, which would revoke the scholarship from more than 30,000 current students who receive it. As it stands, warned Alexander, LSU, which has around 14,000 students receiving TOPS, would stand to lose 7,000 scholarships.
While the program has a cloud of ambiguity surrounding it for the upcoming fall semester, UL System President Dan Reneau said the loss of those students would produce a revenue loss greater than the 6 percent reduction schools will take in the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
Reneau said the primary source of income for schools is tuition, which is tied to enrollment. The TOPS cut “places you in an awkward position of not knowing what your enrollment will be in September,” he said. “It certainly won’t be more. Students are being cherry-picked out of this state now.”