T. Scott Boatright, Reporter
11-11-2009
There’s a reason Gov. Bobby Jindal said he opened his tour of Louisiana universities at Louisiana Tech Tuesday.“I want to thank (Tech) President (Dan) Reneau, the faculty as well as the students who take the time today to show their research and what they are learning in the classroom to let us get another first-hand view of what great work they are doing here at Louisiana Tech,” Jindal said.
He went on to highlight why he believes the school will help serve as a model as state officials look at ways to streamline higher education in Louisiana in order to make it more efficient.
“There are several reasons to be here,” Jindal said. “This is the first of multiple visits. We will be going to other campuses as well. We chose to come here first to highlight several of the things that have been done especially well at Louisiana Tech. As we move forward in higher education, we know that as a state, we have to invest in unique areas of excellence. We can’t afford to be all things to all people.
“What you see today are just some of the examples where Tech has identified over a number of years investing in unique areas of excellence. This was an initiative I encouraged when I was head of the UL system. But this is something Tech has been doing for a number of years. They understand — they understand we can’t afford to be all things to all people. That leads to mediocrity. They selected a few key areas (to focus on).”
After meeting privately with Reneau, Tucker Commission member James Davison and other university leaders for about 20 minutes, Jindal visited several sites on campus, including the Innovation Lab, Biomedical Engineering Rotunda and the Institute for Micromanufacturing.
There the governor talked with students about their research projects, such as a high-mileage car that competed in Shell’s Eco-Marathon competition, geopolymer concrete and another seeking to reduce the cost of prosthetic limbs in third-world countries.
Jindal also spoke of the Tucker Commission, a Postsecondary Education Review Commission named after its creator, state Speaker of the House Jim Tucker, that was created legislatively and is tasked with streamlining higher education while increasing graduation rates in the face of projected budget cuts over the next several years.
“The bottom line is this: We’re facing challenging times as a state, but even in challenging times, we have to invest in and reform higher education,” Jindal said.
“We have to reform higher education, and part of that means boosting graduation rates, investing in new areas of excellence and making sure that our schools are connecting to economic development. As an administration, we have invested nearly a half a billion dollars in infrastructure on our campuses. You see some of that construction work here at Tech, but also on campuses across our state.”
The Tucker Commission’s next meetings are slated for Monday and Tuesday in Baton Rouge.
“Tech is doing a great job of taking ideas out of the classroom and the laboratory and turning those ideas into new jobs, new companies and new opportunities for our kids to stay in Louisiana,” Jindal said. “We as a state have to do a better job of taking the research that is going on in our campuses and the lessons taught in our classrooms and making good jobs out of those activities.
“By many national standards, Tech is ahead of the curve when it comes to being efficient at attracting many outside research funds and turning those research funds into inventions, ideas, into patents and into companies. … I think it is a great, great model of how our university can serve our communities.”
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