<p>[Alabama</a> outpacing LSU on gridiron, in classroom | Home | The Advocate ? Baton Rouge, LA](<a href=“http://theadvocate.com/home/7433217-125/rising-tide]Alabama”>http://theadvocate.com/home/7433217-125/rising-tide)</p>
<p>Roll tide…</p>
<p>Great read. Chancellor Witt is thebomb.com. Roll Tide!</p>
<p>Faculty changes over five years
LSU — Lost 220
Alabama — Added 408</p>
<p>You trying to bait me? Not gonna work. I’ve been preaching about this for the last couple of years. It’s all politics, and it starts with our stupid governor Bobby Jindal, who does not believe that funding the flagship is a priority, and a legislature that does not want to give up control over tuition.</p>
<p>I would take the article with a grain of salt to an extent. The Advocate has always been a chronic criticizer of LSU. It is now owned by a millionaire Tulane grad who generally hates LSU and will miss no opportunity to dump on us, and what better time than the week of the Alabama game? Much of what the article says is true, but to be fair, it does point out that LSU’s tuition is lower, LSU spends 3X what Alabama spends on research, and its graduates make more money (which is likely tied to its prominence in the petrochemical sector).</p>
<p>Yes, like many universities, LSU has its problems. That said, it is still a good school and major research university, but has been underfunded for too long. The flow of faculty departures has been reduced to a trickle due to recent payraises, and they are hiring again. We are finally seeing lots of construction cranes on campus after a long spell of seeing little facilities improvements. We’re not there yet, but working on it.</p>
<p>LSU DID just get a Trader Joe’s which opened last week very near the campus.</p>
<p>LSU has more research money cause it has a Vet school and has an Agricultural Sciences program. I bet the two schools are comparable in research money once those are removed. But yes, UA has really just started seriously ramping up funding for research.</p>
<p>My sister and her husband are both on the faculty at the LSU vet school. He left a professorship at the University of Tennessee (where he was for 22 years) to take the job.</p>
<p>Wife of a Tulane grad here, but frankly, I am seeing the LSU grads getting a lot more jobs than the Tulane grads, which didn’t used to be the case. I have good friends on the LSU faculty as well, indeed, in engineering, who graduated from such top schools as Stanford, Cornell, Rice, Princeton. No slouches there. Their vet school is, indeed, top notch. My husband’s bosses, who are at least ten years younger than him, are all LSU grads, making more in their young age than he’ll ever dream of making. Used to be an old joke, What does an LSU grad call a Tulane grad? Boss. Not so anymore. LSU, like Bama, is not just a football school, and while there may exist a rivalry nowadays akin to what used to exist between them and Tulane, I would say their academics are no longer a joking matter.</p>
<p>I read the article and thought it was fair and informative. It shows what a strong national research university LSU is (especially in engineering and business) but no doubt the budget cuts have taken a toll. Frankly, I was surprised to see just how much more money LSU grads make than Alabama grads. I would not have thought that was the case. My daughter is likely heading to Alabama next fall so I’m happy to see it is growing and thriving. I think it will be a good fit for her since she is more of a liberal arts kid. These are two good schools we can be proud of. Don’t see a need to trash either. (Except in football :)</p>
<p>I was surprised to see just how much more money LSU grads make than Alabama grads</p>
<p>That is a stat that isn’t likely accurate. Many schools have no idea how much their grads earn. No grad has any obligation to report their earnings to their undergrad school. I would imagine that most grads never report how much they’re earning.</p>
<p>I don’t know from what year that stat comes from, but Bama’s eng’g dept was small for a LONG time, and that area would be the area that generates higher salaries for grads. If LSU’s eng’g dept had been larger during the years prior to that stat report, that would also be a factor.</p>
<p>Plus, some go to grad/med/law school and earn nothing after undergrad.</p>
<p>Budget cut since 2008:
LSU — $129 million, 52 percent.
Alabama — $12.4 million, 33 percent.</p>
<p>the above is an odd stat. Typo?</p>