Systems split over college formula funding - Mike Hasten, the Town Talk

Funding has been dropping the past four years and this year just over $1 billion is being split up. Purcell said that is roughly 65 percent of what universities should be funded. The Southern University System is the hardest hit, with the biggest cut falling on the system's flagship campus in Baton Rouge. System President Ronald Mason said the campus has declared a financial emergency, allowing it to make severe cuts to programs, downsize operations and lay off tenured faculty, and "you only declare a financial emergency when you run out of options." Yet the proposed budget cuts another $4 million from the campus, he said, when the university "needs a little breathing room to dig itself out.