After numerous delays, the Board of Supervisors at Southern University declined to declare financial exigency for the Baton Rouge campus on Tuesday. Nine votes were needed to pass the measure, but it got only six, with six board members voting against it. Declaring financial exigency would have allowed the university to impose layoffs and furloughs on tenured professors, potentially saving $1.7-million to help meet a $10-million budget shortfall. But it also could have damaged the university’s reputation and debt rating.
Now the university will have to find those savings in other ways. Its chancellor, James Llorens, told The Chronicle that some faculty members had volunteered for furloughs, which could add up to about $1-million. The difference, he said, might be made up in layoffs among staff members. The university planned to submit a budget, outlining the cutbacks, to the state’s Board of Regents Tuesday night.
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