Our Plan to Accelerate and Protect LSU Student Success and Research Excellence - Phase 1
March 28, 2025
Dear Faculty and Staff,
LSU is on an incredible trajectory. We’ve had consecutive record-breaking years in research, philanthropy, state support, enrollment, and student quality. Uncertainty in federal funding and future support should not hinder our growth or momentum. Instead, we must transform challenges into opportunities that strengthen the success of our students, our research growth, and our university’s strategic direction. By acting decisively now with a renewed commitment to student success, research acceleration, and strategic funding realignment, we will protect our mission while advancing our strategic goals.
Student Success Amplification Initiative
We exist to educate our students, but to excel at this mission, we must take bold steps today, leveraging faculty expertise with technology and strategy to elevate retention and graduation rates for the benefit of our state and nation. Immediate steps include:
- Student Success Working Group
- Classroom Excellence Study
- Advising and Counseling Alignment
- Curriculum Mapping for Degree Paths
We have convened a dedicated Student Success Workgroup with multiple subcommittees at both the campus and system levels will develop innovative strategies to improve student retention, performance, and educational outcomes.
We will study classroom excellence by gathering best practices from faculty leaders and identifying areas where additional training or guidance may be needed. Faculty Senate will take the lead on this effort.
We will collaborate with Enrollment and Student Success and each College to optimize advising and counseling resources for maximum student benefit.
A comprehensive curriculum-mapping project will evaluate every degree path, from freshman year through graduation, to identify and resolve problematic areas.
Research Acceleration Initiative
We have now entered our fourth consecutive year of double-digit research growth at the flagship and system levels. But gaining Top 50 and AAU status doesn’t come by slow and consistent growth alone – it comes with bold vision, collaborative efforts, new technology and an innovative spirit. Our initial steps to support this will include:
- Surge to Top 50
- Faculty and Staff Excellence Incentive Program
- Saving Lives through Health Education & Research
We will follow the Research Optimization plan outlined by Huron and Urban Advisors, leveraging system-wide research efforts to propel LSU toward Top 50 status while driving life-saving innovations and meaningful impact.
To reward faculty and staff performance as we continue our drive to become a Top 50 research university and AAU member, we will introduce an incentive program recognizing faculty achievements in major grants, high-impact publications, prestigious awards, or undergraduate and graduate mentoring excellence.
We will develop new health programs across the LSU system to address Louisiana’s critical shortage of healthcare professionals and advance our pursuit of NCI designation.
Strategic Funding Realignment
As we face unpredictable and unprecedented federal funding changes and a constantly shifting landscape in terms of our other measures of financial support, we must shore up our operations and protect our current stream of revenue to drive our progress and support our academic core. Phase 1 steps include:
- AI-Driven Administrative Efficiencies
- Enterprise Solutions and Procurement Policies
- Expand LSU Online to Support LSU’s Growth
- Targeted Hiring Freeze
- Eliminate Redundant Positions and Centralize Key Roles
- Precision Reinvestment
We will convene a committee to explore AI solutions that reduce administrative burdens and enhance productivity, allowing faculty and staff to focus on high-impact academic and research activities.
We are currently partnered with procurement to establish policies guiding enterprise solutions, enhancing cost savings and operational efficiency university wide.
We will strengthen LSU Online to ensure accessibility to an LSU education, regardless of geographical location, with a goal of enrolling 10,000 students by 2030. Colleges, departments, and units are expected to work toward alleviating hurdles toward accelerating this growth.
Effective immediately, we are freezing hiring across the university, with limited exceptions. Faculty positions with offers extended prior to today’s date will proceed. An appeals process will be available for critical hires in research, academics, or operations, with details forthcoming.
We will conduct a thorough review to streamline roles and reduce duplicative efforts, ensuring resources support LSU’s highest priorities.
Beginning FY26, we will withhold 2% of departmental budgets as a safeguard to strengthen financial resilience and maintain our strategic momentum. This ensures operational excellence and positions the university to withstand potential funding reductions and unforeseen challenges. However, .5% can be regained through hitting specific annual metrics and goals. The initial goal would be removal of student hurdles to progression. Additionally, the remaining 1.5% will go into a strategic fund, which will allow for a competitive process to compete for small- and large-dollar awards to support academic and research initiatives from across the campus.
This is not a plan to maintain the status quo – it is a plan to accelerate. By acting now, we are investing in student success, fueling research excellence, and ensuring that LSU continues its ascent. These strategic actions will help our university navigate financial challenges while advancing academic distinction, research innovation, and student success. By acting decisively today, we build a stronger, more resilient institution for the future.
I appreciate your partnership and leadership in implementing these initiatives and welcome discussions on how we can further elevate our university’s impact.
Best,
William F. Tate IV
LSU President
Frequently Asked Questions
LSU is on an incredible trajectory. We’ve had consecutive record-breaking years in research, philanthropy, state support, enrollment, and student quality. Uncertainty in federal funding and future support should not hinder our growth or momentum. Instead, we must transform challenges into opportunities that strengthen the success of our students, our research growth, and our university’s strategic direction. These initiatives aim to protect and strengthen LSU’s future while maintaining momentum.
The plan focuses on three major areas:
- Student Success Amplification – Improving retention, graduation rates, and academic support.
- Research Acceleration – Increasing LSU’s national ranking and research impact.
- Strategic Funding Realignment – Managing financial challenges, streamlining and reducing redundancies while investing in LSU’s future.
A group of faculty, staff, and administrators will develop strategies to improve student retention, academic performance, and graduation rates.
This initiative will gather teaching best practices from faculty leaders and identify areas where additional training or support may be needed.
LSU will work with colleges and student services to make advising and counseling more effective and accessible for students.
It’s a process of reviewing all degree programs to identify and fix challenges that slow students down or make graduation more difficult.
LSU aims to become one of the top 50 research universities in the U.S. by focusing on collaboration, new technology, and faculty support.
A new incentive program will recognize faculty and staff for securing major grants, publishing high-impact research, earning prestigious awards, or mentoring students.
LSU plans to expand health programs to address Louisiana’s shortage of healthcare professionals and work toward National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation.
To control costs and focus funding on LSU’s top priorities, most hiring is paused, except for critical positions in research, academics, and operations
LSU will review job roles to reduce overlap and ensure resources are used efficiently. Key job functions will be centralized to improve consistency, efficiency, and overall effectiveness across the university. All positions across the university will be evaluated for redundant and duplicative responsibilities, with a plan to eliminate those redundancies to follow shortly after. Resources saved through centralization efforts will be reinvested into critical positions that directly impact research, academics, and student success, ensuring that our core mission remains the top priority.
A committee will explore AI solutions to reduce paperwork and improve efficiency, allowing faculty and staff to focus on teaching and research.
Starting in FY26, 2% of each department’s budget will be withheld as a financial safeguard. However, departments can earn back 0.5% by meeting key goals, and the remaining 1.5% will be available for competitive funding to support research and academic projects.
Expanding LSU Online will provide more students across the state and the nation with access to an LSU education and help the university reach its goal of 10,000 online students by 2030.
This is a university-wide effort and will take everyone’s support and commitment.
No.
The goal of AI solutions is to reduce paperwork and improve efficiency, allowing faculty and staff to focus on their essential responsibilities, not to replace humans.
The first step is to understand and analyze where we are, then implementation will follow.
Huron and Urban Advisors have worked with many R1 universities to help then accelerate their research activates. Leadership across all our campuses worked together with Huron and Urban Advisors to develop our roadmap to becoming a Top 50 research university. For more information on the plan please visithttp://lsu.edu/president/research/index.php.
We are conducting a comprehensive review of university-wide systems, processes and contracts to identify opportunities for greater efficiency and cost reduction. This includes consolidating duplicative services, enhancing procurement strategies, and ensuring we leverage scalable technology solutions to reduce administrative burden.
We will collaborate with Enrollment and Student Success and each College to optimize advising and counseling resources for maximum student benefit.
Beginning FY26, we will withhold 2% of departmental budgets as a safeguard to strengthen financial resilience and maintain our strategic momentum. This ensures operational excellence and positions the university to withstand potential funding reductions and unforeseen challenges. However, .5% can be regained through hitting specific annual metrics and goals. The initial goal would be removal of student hurdles to progression. Additionally, the remaining 1.5% will go into a strategic fund, which will allow for a competitive process to compete for small- and large-dollar awards to support academic and research initiatives from across the campus.
To reward faculty and staff performance as we continue our drive to become a Top 50 research university and AAU member, we will introduce an incentive program recognizing faculty achievements in major grants, high-impact publications, prestigious awards, or undergraduate and graduate mentoring excellence.