Interviews with faculty and staff reflect the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s efforts to communicate its budget deficit recovery. The opinions of interviewees do not reflect those of the University or other employees.
Business administration and management professor Keith Credo is the vice president of the University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). He says it strives for “greater institutional transparency, more meaningful shared governance, academic freedom and campus expression protections.”
Since Dr. Ramesh Kolluru was appointed University president on Feb. 26, new tensions with employees have surfaced. AAUP Chapter President Beth Stauffer, a biology professor, provided a timeline.
This year’s State of the University address on Aug. 19 was “the first year where there was no opportunity to ask questions,” according to Stauffer. The president outlined reaching the institution’s long-term strategy, “Louisiana Vision 2035,” which “sets ambitious goals for enrollment, research, doctoral education and philanthropy.”
The AAUP sent an email to the Office of the President on Aug. 26 with 11 unanswered questions, including, “What is our current financial situation?… How will we protect our R1 status?… How long will faculty have to do more with less?”
The Office of the President responded with an email to all faculty and staff on Sept. 10 to address concerns. The AAUP found that only two questions were directly answered. On Oct. 9, they posted a response on the chapter’s Facebook page detailing, “information that conflicts with the president’s message.”
The University President hosted a town hall on Oct. 16 with more specific details for achieving “Louisiana Vision 2035.” In the 2025-26 fiscal year (FY), the cumulative unrestricted deficit was reduced from $37.7 million to $19.9 million. Although Kolluru could eliminate the deficit quickly with budget cuts, “that would be painful… there’s not much more to be cut,” Kolluru said. The current plan aims to resolve the remaining deficit by the end of the 2028-29 FY.
There is no available, simplified interpretation of the 91-page 2026-27 FY budget report. Accounting professor Cheryl Metrejean said, “These budget reports are not really the easiest thing for a lot of people to read.” The University, being state-funded, is restricted in how funding and revenue are reallocated. For example, she continued, “If a donor gives money for a certain thing, the University cannot spend it on anything else.”
Employee demands for accountability are, seemingly, succeeding. The administration cancelled the transition from a monthly to biweekly pay schedule for employees. Kolluru admitted at the town hall, “For all the pain and angst that this has caused, I stand in front of you with an apology.” The Louisiana Legislative Auditor found in its June 10 report that the institution fixed some problems, although others remain. A March 16 internal audit on the LaCarte Card Program recognized a lack of controls, falsified documentation of expenses and non-approved tax-exempt purchases.
Issues and anxiety persist about faculty pay, travel and research funding, access to course fees and supporting graduate students, all of which are expected of a Carnegie Research 1 (R1) institution.
These concerns were voiced by Stauffer and Credo, along with Interim Director of the School of Dance and Theatre Sara Birk, architecture professor Kiwana McClung, Honors Program Director Emily Sandoz and Architecture and Design Graduate Coordinator Robert McKinney.
Kevin Guillory is the president-elect of the newly founded Staff Council, representing staff interests. In response to recent changes, Guillory said it’s “important that staff continue to feel supported, valued and connected to the institution.” Guillory is also the Operations and Community Engagement Coordinator for the Louisiana Entrepreneurship & Economic Development Center.
Leah Orr, Faculty Senate president and English department head. She remarked on concerns about whether “student course fees would be made available for the purposes that they had been allocated… some people wanted to know if that included distance learning funds, and we don’t yet have access to those funds.” A faculty salary study conducted earlier this year compares the University to other institutions in the South. The resulting $500,000 cost-of-living salary increase for classified employees is a starting point.
Credo and Stauffer clarified that this “heartening” investment only applies to civil servants. Credo said, “The vast majority of faculty are making less after adjusting for inflation since hiring.”
AAUP Treasurer and English professor Maria Seger said, “It’s not possible to be taken seriously as a research institution if you cannot have robust library research resources, funding for research travel, competitive research fellowships, releases from summer teaching.”
Seger continued, “The University is funding faculty research travel at $50,000 for the entire university… we’re looking at about $4,000 of conference spending a year per faculty member. We have, I think, 52 faculty members in my department. We’re already well above that $50,000 cap.”
University Librarian Brian Doherty said, “We’ve been sending out lists of journals that we need to cut,” because the Library division had to cut $600,000 from the materials budget. Doherty also identified a fundamental lack of interdepartmental collaboration because “You can’t afford to lose anything that you already have, and so if you’re going to have a project that you’re doing with another department, that brings up ‘Well, what do I have to share, and what am I going to get back, and can I even do this?’” Doherty directly called for a shift in the University’s culture.
Director of Choral Activities William Plummer clarified that the majority of funding comes from external donors. To recruit new students, the School of Music must “rely on scholarships, and those scholarships were directly frozen. Student fee accounts were frozen,” which hinders the ability to pay for performance uniforms, instruments, licensing fees and hire collaborators.
The Ernest J. Gaines Center is focused on spreading the work of Ernest J. Gaines, a world-renowned writer and UL Lafayette alumnus.
According to Cheylon Woods, “Gaines’ work was translated into 14 different languages… part of my job here is working with scholars all over the world who are interested in the thematic connections they see in his work in their day-to-day lives.”
Yet, as the center’s only employee since the assistant director was laid off during last year’s staff consolidations, she now struggles to meet the demands of the center’s international mission.
Woods expressed that, going forward, “I wish things were not as siloed here because it makes it very difficult to have collective governance, and it’s affecting morale… We’re here because we love the students, we love our colleagues, and we genuinely love our work.” The University is clearly in a difficult position. It’s important to balance patience with pressure.