The approved Fiscal Year 2025-26 Capital Outlay Budget to improve the University

With the 2025-2026 school year just on the horizon, higher education institutions in the state of Louisiana brace for potential budget cuts. However, the good news is that the Capital Outlay Budget for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-2026 was recently approved by the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System.

University of Louisiana at Lafayette received over one billion dollars worth of capital outlay that will fund a bounty of projects under the University’s Five-Year Capital Outlay Plans for FY 2025-26 through FY 2029-30. 

Among the projects, there are renovations and constructions to a number of buildings on campus including Declouet Hall, Foster Hall, Madison Hall and more. A prominent project is the construction of the new engineering building and upgrading of the existing building, which has been in the works since the fall 2024 semester. 

Other projects include land acquisitions, renovations to Blackham Coliseum, the building of new facilities for the Department of Health Sciences and the School of Kinesiology, as well as new research laboratories.  

These projects aim to bring significant impacts to the University, improving the quality of campus facilities and academic resources. 

The La Louisiane podcast invited Dr. Joseph Savoie, president of UL Lafayette, to discuss what is ahead for the University in 2025. Regarding land acquisitions, Savoie said, “I see that as the next generation of growth for the University. And so that’s why acquiring that was so important. It wasn’t what was already there, it’s what can be there that was important.”

The University is looking ahead at a modernized future, pushing for necessary changes and upgrades that will foster the improvement of academic programs.

Jerry Luke LeBlanc, UL Lafayette’s vice president for Administration and Finance, spoke on the University’s budget matters. He explained the two separate budgets that the University operates on. These are the construction budget and operating budget. 

LeBlanc explained that the construction budget is essentially the capital outlay, which is funded by the state. The request for approval of the Capital Outlay Budget first goes through the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System. It is then forwarded to the Board of Regents for approval and submission to the Division of Administration Facility Planning and Control. 

Based on the University’s Financial Report for the year that ended on June 30, 2023, the operating revenue “includes activities that have the characteristics of exchange transactions.” These include student tuition and fees and most federal, state and local grants, contracts and federal appropriations. 

Operating expenses “generally include transactions resulting from providing goods or services.” These include payments to vendors for goods or services and payments to employees for services. 

In regards to the operating budget, LeBlanc said, “We’ve been at pretty much a standstill and we’re very careful to monitor the revenues and expenditures that are occurring.”

He added, “We had some revenue challenges so we’ve realigned our expenditure to meet our challenges, that may have made some adjustments to the spending side to match our revenue side.”

With the tight budgets in the state, the University has been seeing and will continue to see financial constraints which may potentially lead to a drain in funds from certain expenditure areas in order to keep up with the revenue. 

Fortunately, “Any adjustments that are happening are happening several layers away from students, so they are not directly impacted,” LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc placed emphasis on the fact that despite financial challenges, the University will always base its priorities on maintaining the quality of education and campus life for students, faculty and staff. 

“When our budget was cut more than 8 years ago, we placed the academic core first which means faculty and student experience comes first,” LeBlanc stated.

The financial situation of post-secondary institutions in Louisiana remains concerning given the current uncertainty of the state’s fiscal status. From a post by the Louisiana Board of Regents, “the systems noted the effect of inflationary pressures on operational costs.” 

The post also stated, “With the $0.45 sales tax scheduled to sunset in FY 2025-26, Regents was charged to develop plans for higher education to accommodate a $250 million reduction across all systems.” 

From a news report by KATC, “The four systems that operate nearly 30 of the state’s higher education institutions overseen by the Regents would be affected: University of Louisiana, Louisiana State University, Southern University and Louisiana Community and Technical Colleges System.” 

LeBlanc said, “With the nature of inflation, all institutions in Louisiana have to watch our operating spending.” He added, “Everyone is feeling the constraints of the economy.”

While the operational budget constraints remain challenging and uncertain, the approved Capital Outlay Budget for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-26 will allow the University to move forward with construction projects and upgrades to campus facilities. This will ultimately be significant in improving the quality of academic resources that will fuel higher learning and inspire innovation.