PicoBlog

The Louisiana Legislature will consider a bill that would give the governor further control over higher education.

Senate Bill 403 by Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma, would give the governor sole power to appoint the chairs of the four higher education governing boards. Governors already appoint the members of the four boards of supervisors, save for the sole student member.

Fesi’s bill would give the governor further power, allowing him to select the chair. Currently, the chairmanship is rotated annually, diluting its power. But if Fesi’s bill passes, Landry could reappoint the same chair year after year, setting up the chair of the board to be a sort of shadow president.

Perhaps this would allow the chair to act as a healthy check on the powerful system presidents. But many in higher education are worried that consolidating the governor’s power over colleges and universities would set up a second Long era in higher ed — one where Landry steps in as another president of LSU or any institution.

This is the first bill Fesi has authored on higher education since his initial election in 2019. I can’t report definitively why Fesi has chosen now to take an interest in academia, though one could speculate it stems from his brush with an LSU graduate assistant last summer.

The student left Fesi a vulgar voicemail condemning his support of a ban on gender affirming healthcare for transgender youth. The student was removed from the classroom but allowed to perform research duties in the sociology department. Free Speech advocates and the GA believed LSU went too far, but Fesi was unsatisfied with the outcome, arguing that the student should’ve been fired and expelled from the university.

A hearing on the proposal has not yet been scheduled. Check back for further updates on the bill.

Have thoughts on any bills? Send me a message. It’s off the record unless you say otherwise.

A bill that would allow formerly incarcerated people to access more financial support unanimously cleared its first hurdle this week.

House Bill 728 by Rep. Paula Davis, R-Baton Rouge, would allow people convicted of violent crimes to access the M.J. Foster Promise Program, a financial aid program that allows students to pursue an associate degree or short-term credential in a high-demand occupation.

The bill also lowers the age for initial qualification from 21 to 17.

Coming just weeks after the legislature’s special session on crime, which expanded criminal penalties and lowered the age for consideration as an adult in the criminal justice system, the bill is viewed by its wide swath of supporters as a necessary step to reducing crime.

Take it from Andrew Hundley, the formerly incarcerated head of the Louisiana Parole Project, which aids people after their prison sentences.

“There is no doubt that jobs reduce crime. And providing men and women who are trying to turn their lives around with opportunities to obtain skills through career and technical education is a win-win.” 

Student activists at LSU are continuing their push for expanded access to emergency contraception.

Weeks after LSU Feminists in Action announced they had distributed over 1200 units of emergency contraception to LSU students at no cost, the LSU Student Government unanimously endorsed a resolution calling on the student health center to provide access to the medication to students.

Currently, the clinic only provides emergency contraceptives to those who self-report that they are survivors of sexual assault.

Students across the country have played an outsized role in advocating for — and providing — reproductive healthcare on campuses.

These efforts also mirror debates happening in statehouses across the country. Just this week, the Louisiana legislature stalled a bill that would have symbolically enshrined an individual’s right to birth control because the powerful anti-abortion group Louisiana Right to Life had not yet taken a position. (To be clear, emergency contraceptives are not abortifacients.)

States Newsroom, the network of statehouse bureaus I work for, is tracking similar bills across the country. Check out proposals in other states.

• Did you read The Washington Post profile of LSU women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey? It was a great piece by an excellent sports features writer, Kent Babb. But for a profile of someone so prone to grudges, so sensitive about loyalty, I think it did not emphasize enough her time at an institution where the words “ever loyal be” ring out. A defining moment of her coaching career was being offered a contract by former Tech President Dan Reneau that, at its completion, would’ve put her just a year short of her state retirement. It’s an anecdote we’ve heard before, but I think under-explored and under-utilized in Babb’s piece. The article, while not a hit piece or investigation, is worth reading — though perhaps makes you long for such a talented sports features writer more versed in Louisiana.

• The Chronicle of Higher Education had a great article on the man whose definition of antisemitism is being used to censor on university campuses. (This is the only piece on antisemitism in a big national magazine published this week worth reading.) It’s not unlikely campus clashes on this topic will come up this legislative session.

• LSU researchers are out to make a better bug spray, The Advocate’s new deputy metro editor Deanna Narveson reports. God bless ‘em. I can’t wait to try it.

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