[She asks:] Did you know that the LSU administration has listed LSU Press as a unit targeted for deep budget cuts or perhaps even closure? Here is the important paragraph, from p. 12 of the budget draft:
Cut general fund support to academic support units
This cut will require certain academic support entities to implement new fees for their services or to increase their existing fees to students, faculty, staff, and/or the general public. Because of the nature of some of these entities and their fixed cost of operation, it is very possible they cannot generate the revenue needed and will close. Examples of units that may be impacted as a result of this type of decision are the LSU Museum of Art, Rural Life Museum, Hilltop Arboretum, LSU Press, Southern Review, Louisiana Library Network, Alumni Association and the Fire & Emergency Training Institute.
[She continues:] I’m writing to ask that you contact Chancellor Michael Martin and Provost Astrid Merget immediately to let them know how you feel about LSU Press and its importance to Louisiana, its people and its culture.
While the Press, like all other units on the flagship campus, will certainly face some cuts, how much it will be is at the discretion of the Chancellor. Slashing the allocation to the LSU Press would represent a devastating setback for the state and the loss of a priceless cultural resource. It would literally destroy or severely cripple the state’s only university publishing house; it would, in effect, kill an institution whose books have won more Pulitzer Prizes than any other university press; it would leave many authors without a distinguished outlet for telling the stories of Louisiana’s unique history, culture, and heritage; it would decimate a Louisiana institution that has developed a significant international reputation.
Sparing LSU Press from draconian measures allows it to: continue attracting and promoting outstanding authors and books; maintain a global publishing perspective with a focus on the South; contribute to the university’s quest for increased academic prominence through scholarly inquiry; and promote the achievements of our state and region.
Below is a short fact sheet—it’s remarkable how commendable the press is! More information is available at the LSU Press web site at: http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress
[She requests:] If you agree with me that LSU Press is one of our state’s priceless assets and should be protected, I ask that, instead of email, you please phone or write a letter to the administration. Public support for the press will be very important. Please share this email with anyone interested.
Chancellor Michael Martin
156 Thomas Boyd Hall
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Tel.: 225-578-6977
Fax: 225-578-5982
chancellor@lsu.edu
Provost Astrid Merget
135 Thomas Boyd Hall
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Tel.: 225-578-8863
Fax: 225-578-5980
merget@lsu.edu
FACTS [I have this list, as I do the entire post, from Mary Ann Sternberg]:
*LSU Press was the first university press to win a Pulitzer Prize in fiction and is the only university press to have won Pulitzer Prizes in both fiction and poetry.
*LSU Press has won four Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other academic publisher in the United States.
*In the past 10 years, LSU Press books and authors have won over 230 prizes including four the National Book Award, three Bancroft Prizes, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Booker Prize, the American Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Lincoln Prize, the Lamont Poetry Selection by the Academy of American Poets, and numerous other honors.
*Since 1935, the Press has published over 3,000 titles, and printed over 6 million books sold around the world bearing the imprint: “Louisiana State University Press.”
*There are over two million printed copies, in 22 languages, of the Press’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole.
*LSU Press publishes approximately 80 new books each year, by authors from our region and around the world.
Y’all protest, y’heah? There really is no good reason at all to ruin even more things in this state.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Holy crap! Are they gutting every cultural resource at the university?
I’m going to send this to my aunt, a former press editor. She might be able to mobilize some masses.
I was just looking at the Reed Alumni Magazine and note that defending the core mission of that school is the #1 priority in this time of economic downturn. This is a school that has been repeatedly attacked for being leftist and weird and impractical and too intellectual and so on and on and on from the day they opened their doors. If they have to cut back it will be on administrators.
They also got two huge endowments from alumni, which still puts them short, because they lost 30% of the value of their investments, but they have been in worse spots.
The top priority at Reed is fostering the life of the mind. Quaint, eh?
Clio — Yes, they are going absolutely insane. This GREAT re your press connection — THANK YOU. And: any time is a good time for me to say I HATE BOBBY JINDAL.
Hattie — Yes, Reed is rich enough and has enough support for being what it is to be able to resist these sorts of things.
State institutions with big Federal contracts and lots of ties to industry are not in a position to remain above politics and the economy in the same way.
I am very irritated with and cynical about both the legislature and the LSU administration — I mean, more than I usually am — at this point. (Usually I am “philosophical” about these things but they are getting downright outrageous.)
The thing is that people are not interested in the educational and research missions of universities, but in how they can make money from them (thence, of course, the term AIC, Academic Industrial Complex).
And my truly bitter statement for today is that when people say they think the university should be run on a “business model” they mean they intend to act in it like Enron executives.
Yes, well obviously Reed is in better shape than Louisiana, but it isn’t Harvard! They give out enormous amounts of financial aid. A serious and well qualified student will be able to go to Reed. They even gave me 85% of tuition costs to finish my M.A. at a time when I could not have afforded to go there otherwise.
I do think the core mission of fostering the life of the mind is what has kept them going through many a downturn over the 100 years of their existence. I know this is a little like oranges and apples. We need all the different kinds of insitutions of higher education, of course.
I don’t know anyone who has gone to graduate school at Harvard and not been fully funded by them.
By which I mean: being funded as a graduate student is not really a measure of what is going on. No funding for graduate students means the whole edifice comes down. It’s about the last thing to go.
Most of the aid goes at Reed to undergraduates, because Reed is really a school for undergraduates. I participated in a small, well funded MA program in liberal studies there.
Yes, that kind of college gives out a whole lot of aid. They are the places which, in many ways, are in the best position to maintain the core values of a liberal education as these were formerly understood to be. Virtually everywhere else, except at some public Ivies and so on, the process of erosion is very far advanced.
Thanks for letting us know about LSU Press so that we can get the word out.
Thank you Undine! We need you! Jindal’s budget passed the House yesterday and things are not looking good.
http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20090515/NEWS01/905140336/-1/NEWSFRONT2/House+passes++27B+budget
We are getting a pharmacy school building for the U of Hawaii at Hilo. The pharmacologist school here is two years old. This is good news. It will keep some people on the island. They won’t have to leave home to make a living.
We are in survival mode around here. I went to a meeting with our state Senators and Reps last night and am writing a report on what happened. There are not a lot of intellecuals around here, but there are plenty of bright people who are working to improve our situation.
Good luck on your LSU press action. I suggest getting everything put into Kindle format. Be the first press on your block!
Oh wow. I just looked up LU Press and they already have 27 titles on Kindle. I’ll find a couple I like and download them. Every little bit helps!
Hawaii / U of H, survival mode, I am sure that’s true! LSUP, gracias!!!!