Transforming LSU into a Premier Public Research University An Investment in Louisianas Economic Futu

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Transforming LSU into a Premier Public Research
UniversityAn Investment in Louisianas Economic
Future

• 2008 C2ER Applied Community
• Economic Research Award Winner

BRAC LOGO HERE
Meg Mahoney SVP of Product
Development Baton Rouge Area Chamber May 16, 2008
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FRAMING THE ISSUE - How does university research
benefit regional economic development? -

• Growth of the knowledge economy
• Human skill and intellectual capital now
  supersede other sources of competitive advantage
  (e.g. physical location)
• Capturing knowledge industries creates
  first-mover advantages

EMERGING TREND

• Louisianas overdependence on access to natural
  resources
• Underdeveloped knowledge economy sectors (e.g.
  tech sector)
• Chronic under-funding and low federal RD
  activity at LSU has stagnated the states
  innovation potential

REGIONAL PROBLEM

• Establish a new, economic-development-centered
  vision for LSU, the states flagship research
  university
• Outline necessary investments to increase LSUs
  economic impact
• Articulate BRACs legislative focus areas
  concerning LSU
• Cultivate a regional stakeholder group in higher
  education and university commercialization

BRAC RESPONSE
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Major findings from LSU white paper research

• LSUs research enterprise is significantly
  smaller than most of its nationally-competitive
  counterparts
• Attracts half the amount of sponsored research
  and 36 Federal RD activity of peers
• Maintains half the amount of research lab space
• Graduate students represent only 14 of student
  body (versus 25)
• Invention disclosures for the last 3 years are
  61 of peers
• Closing the resource gap that exists between LSU
  and its peers will require 113 million
  additional operating per year plus a 700 million
  capital campaign which, among other things, would
  double research lab space
• To optimize its economic potential, LSU should
  foster the four key attributes, the best
  practices discovered in successful public
  research universities (discussed later)
• Louisiana should also pursue change to policy
  roadblocks preventing LSUs institutional
  advancement
• A nationally-prominent LSU could net an
  additional 300 million per year and create 4,000
  new, permanent jobs to the Baton Rouge area
  economy

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BRACS RESEARCH STRATEGY
Major analyses and resources of LSU white paper
Web research (university websites, newsletters)
Best practices canvass
University funding benchmark
Literature review (JSTOR, EBSCOhost)
Data resources (SREB, The Center, IPEDS)
University officials
Baton Rouge area business community
Future evaluation criteria
Policy/funding analysis and recommend-ation(s)
State officials
LSU administrators
LSU faculty
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BEST PRACTICES CANVASS
Data needs, resources, and resolutions applied by
BRAC research staff
Research challenge 1 What do we (economic
developers) want LSU to look like?
Best practices canvass
Data need
Resources / resolutions
Find primary and secondary accounts of
universities as successful economic development
partners

• Literature review (JSTOR, EBSCOhost)
• Web research
• University officials (LSU and peers)
• Baton Rouge area business community

Establish a list of attributes that make premier,
public research universities effective in
economic development
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FOUR KEY ATTRIBUTES OF PREMIER PUBLIC RESEARCH
UNIVERSITIES
Common attributes of premier public research
universities found during BRAC canvass
1 World-class, productive research
faculty (Federal RD)
4 Robust university commercialization activity
2 Outstanding research facilities and research
support systems
3 Many high-achieving undergraduate and graduate
students
Source Transforming LSU into a Premier Public
Research University An Investment in Louisianas
Economic Future (BRAC)
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POLICY/FUNDING ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATION(S)
Data needs, resources, and resolutions
Research challenge 2 What state policies
currently prevent LSU from building these four
attributes?
Policy/funding analysis and recommend-ation(s)
Data need
Resources / resolutions
Feedback from university and state officials on
major roadblocks to institutional advancement

• University officials (LSU and peers)
• State officials
• LSU administrators
• LSU faculty
• Baton Rouge area business community

Policy foundation in LA higher education finance,
university capital construction process, etc.
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UNIVERSITY FUNDING BENCHMARK ANALYSIS
Data needs, resources, and resolutions
Research challenge 3 How do LSUs financial
resources compare to stronger research
universities?
University funding benchmark
Data need
Resources / resolutions

• SREB universities in top 25
• Other, well-known research universities

Finding a proper peer university comparison group
w/ necessary data
Excluding or including university medical
centers/schools

• Exclude medical schools tuition, fee, and state
  appropriation resources

Acknowledging significant 2007 higher education
funding increases in LA

• Update most recent LSU funding figures (2005)
  using primary data sources (e.g., LSU Foundation)

Filling holes in available data

• Establish secondary resources such as IPEDS data
  (for universities without medical centers) and
  web-reported revenues (U. Michigan)

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OPERATIONAL FUNDING BENCHMARK FROM LSU WHITE PAPER
Operational funding per FTE student (
thousands)
State appropriations
Tuition and fees
Endowment income
15.3
U. of Michigan
30.7
5.8
Texas AM
7.1
4.7
U. of Cal. - Berkeley
2.2
8.5
0.4
U. of Maryland
10.8
8.3
Research peer avg.
2.5
U. of Virginia
6.1
10.5
7.1
UNC - Chapel Hill
2.6
0.7
U. of Georgia
4.9
1.2
U. of Texas at Austin
8.4
0.5
Georgia Tech
6.3
0.5
LSU (2007)
5.7
0.7
U. of Florida
3.7
KEY ASSUMPTIONS Endowment income data
calculated assuming 4 endowment earnings applied
to operations based on endowment data from The
Center for Measuring University Performance
(2005) FTE student data IPEDS calculated 1 FTE
undergrad 30 hours, 1 FTE grad 24 hours
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FUTURE EVALUATION CRITERIA
Data needs, resources, and resolutions
Research challenge 4 How will we monitor LSUs
progress toward (1) building the four attributes
of successful universities and (2) becoming more
effective in regional economic development?
Future evaluation criteria
Data needs
Resolution
Finding data on total lab space available to
university researchers at each peer university

• No data source existed, so we surveyed each
  individual campus for its inventory of assignable
  research lab space

Finding commercialization data that excluded
university research hospital innovations

• Available AUTM data included university hospital
  inventions, so we excluded schools with
  university hospitals from all commercialization
  benchmarks

Gaining community consensus on a set of
university performance metrics

• Distributed draft document to stakeholders
• Limited metrics to desired outcomes, NOT the
  process of achieving outcomes.

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BRAC GAINED REGIONAL CONSENSUS ON METRICS THAT
ANY REGION CAN USE TO MEASURE THEIR UNIVERSITYS
ECONOMIC IMPACT
Data source
The Center
The Center
BRAC survey
College Board
Calc. IPEDS
AUTM
AUTM
Milken Institute
U.S. News
The Center
The Center for Measuring University
Performance Milken Institutes High-Tech GDP
Location Quotient
Source Transforming LSU into a Premier Public
Research University An Investment in Louisianas
Economic Future (BRAC)
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BRAC RESEARCHERS ACTED AS COALITION-BUILDERS-
BRAC frequently addressed feedback from
stakeholders throughout the research process -
Its impossible to try to raise tuition and fees
in the state of Louisiana because of TOPS.
Why are some research centers included in your
funding analysis and not others?
You should acknowledge the work weve already
done to raise state appropriations to higher
education.
The more admissions requirements we place on our
undergraduates, the more our student body/funding
base shrinks.
The goals youve set for our organization are
impractical.
By using that commercialization data, youre
including hundreds of millions to that campus
university research hospital that do not apply to
LSU operations.
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BRAC CONTINUES TO FOCUS COMMUNITY ATTENTION ON
NEAR-TERM INSTITUTIONAL IMPROVEMENTS FOR LSU
BRAC communications strategy regarding near-term
institutional improvements for LSU
BRAC white paper release
Jindal inauguration
Ethics special session
Surplus special session
2008 Regular Session
BRAC strategy paper release
Dec 07
Jan 08
Feb 08
Mar 08
Apr 08
May 08

• Quick wins for government
• BRAC white paper highlights five quick
  win strategies for state officials to consider
• Apply current surplus to campus facilities
• Institute a state match for university capital
  renovations and expansions
• Institute a state tax credit for private giving
  to universities
• Increase RD tax credits for business and
  industry
• Create a pilot program at LSU to attract
  successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists
  to university inventions

• Developing the Flagship
• BRAC strategy paper pinpoints its support
  for current legislation that would advance LSU
  toward BRAC-established objectives
• Provide increased operational funding to LSU
• Provide increased capital investments for LSU
  research facilities
• Provide increased tuition and/or fee revenue for
  LSU (HBs 677 and 744)
• Return tuition and fee authority to the LSU Board
  of Supervisors (HBs 755 and 756)

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ANY QUESTIONS?
Meg Mahoney SVP of Product
Development Baton Rouge Area Chamber meg_at_brac.org
225.381.7125
This presentation and the LSU White Paper,
Transforming LSU into a Premier Public Research
University An Investment in Louisianas Economic
Future, will be available at www.c2er.org. For
the latest information on this objective from
BRAC please visit www.brac.org.