University President

Dear Nicholls Students:

As your president, I am asking you to play a positive role in passing the student referendum to fund the operation of the student recreation center. By working to pass this referendum, you will help to ensure the future development and well being of Nicholls State University in serving its students. In short, you will leave Nicholls a better university than it was when you arrived. You will leave your legacy.

As your president, l feel it necessary to give you some background concerning where we are and how we got here. You deserve to know the facts as you are faced with an important decision on whether or not you can support this important vote.

In 2003, realizing that Nicholls State University is the only campus in the University of Louisiana System that does not have a recreation center, our students approved a fee to build the recreation center. When it was approved, that fee would have covered the entire cost of design, operation. and construction of the recreation center. Since 2003. our world has changed dramatically. Four major hurricanes and the collapse of the bond market delayed the start of the project. Furthermore, prices have increased so greatly that, today, while we can still build the recreation center, we would not have the funds to operate it. To do that, you must vote yes during the spring election, to be held on April 19, 20,and 21.

It is vitally important that you become knowledgeable about the facility that you are helping to build and operate. Here are some of the key facts.

• It will be a state of the art facility, complete with the latest in recreational and physical fitness equipment.
• It will house two full size indoor basketball courts.
• It will house an indoor walking/jogging track.
• It will have a state of the art “cardio” room.
• It will have student conference rooms.
• It will create an additional 50 student jobs.
• It will create additional 200 parking spaces
• It will have outdoor facilities as well, including two intramural softball fields and two intramural football fields. Work has already started on these fields.
• It will make you proud to have been a part of this building process!

Finally, and very importantly, the university will not begin collecting this fee until the semester or session that the recreation center opens for student use. Please help to make our campus better and more appealing for generations to come. Please vote to approve the $78 fee increase when you go to the polls in April. Leave a legacy!

Sincerely,

Stephen T. Hulbert
President

TO: The University Community

As I welcome faculty, staff and students back to the campus for the Spring Semester 2010, each of us remains keenly aware of the financial challenges that continue to plague Louisiana and, more specifically, its two and four year colleges and universities.  In late December of 2009, the state announced yet another mid-year budget reduction for higher education, this time amounting to $83.9 million.  For Nicholls, that cut was $1.64 million or approximately 5 percent of our state appropriation.

While last year’s mid-year budget reduction came as a surprise and caused considerable harm to the academic program and student services, this year we were better prepared and, in fact, had assumed that another budget reduction might take place.  When we enjoyed an enrollment gain this fall, we “banked” those revenues and did not apply them against a significant back log of operating needs.  Additionally, by holding vacant positions open since August 2009, the university has generated another $700,000 in savings.  Yes, the university was hurt by not using these dollars, but we have covered the $1.64 million mid-year budget reduction without further interruption to academic programs and services that we faced a year ago.

I sincerely hope that over the remaining months of the 2009-10 academic year, we will not face significant operating surprises, such as the cold weather of the past weeks and the unanticipated repair costs attributed to those conditions.  If all goes as we have planned, we will close the academic year without personnel or program cuts.

As I said before Faculty Institute and in meetings of the administrative staff and classified personnel, it is the faculty and staff who have helped get Nicholls through this difficult time.  Everyone has stepped forward to assume additional responsibilities as positions have been eliminated or held open.  This is clearly one of the reasons why Nicholls has evolved into the fine regional university it is today.

I cannot tell you what lies ahead, but I know that together we will continue to address the challenges and opportunities that will further define the role, scope, and mission of Nicholls State University into the future.

My best to each of you for a great spring semester 2010.  I look forward to working with this fine faculty and staff in our shared effort of strengthening Nicholls State University.

TO: The University Community

For some weeks now, I have wanted to write the university family to address the several issues and rumors surrounding the work of the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Review Commission (sometimes referred to as the Tucker Commission). Unfortunately, addressing this matter is very much like “picking up a porcupine.” One tries for the soft underbelly but gets mostly the sharp spines (sorry for the Montana metaphor).

The Postsecondary Education Review Commission was created by Act 309 of the 2009 Louisiana Legislature to study the governance, facilities, and funding operations at the state’s public two and four-year institutions and to provide a written report of findings and recommendations. This group is staffed by the Louisiana Board of Regents.

(more…)

TO: Faculty and Staff

FR: Stephen T. Hulbert, President

Nicholls State University Retention and Graduation Rates

Recent articles in the Times Picayune and USA Today have called attention to the 6-year graduation rates of Louisiana universities citing data collected by CABL and Education Trust. The articles also discuss the state’s newly proposed funding formula which incorporates graduation rates as major criterion for funding universities. Although the actual graduation rates cited vary by publication (See CABL vs. Education Trust) there is consistency in the fact that graduation rates for ALL Louisiana institutions (private and state supported) are below those of their peer institutions with the exception of Louisiana Tech. (See Appendix A)

(more…)