BATON ROUGE (La. Illuminator) — Southern University’s leader has called on state lawmakers to start making up for decades of underfunding in comparison with Louisiana’s flagship university.

Interim SU System President Orlando McMeans is asking the legislature to pay $19 million toward the $1.2 billion disparity in what LSU has received since the 1980s.

The request would be a one-time investment used for campus security, information technology and student recruitment, McMeans said.

The gap was brought to the forefront of higher education funding discussions in 2023 when the White House sent a letter to 16 governors, including Gov. John Bel Edwards, whose states have historically shortchanged their Black land grant universities.

Southern and LSU are among the more than 100 federal land grant universities in the United States. They were first established in the 19th century to create schools with a focus on teaching agriculture, science, engineering and military science. The colleges receive additional federal benefits, but states must match certain funds with state dollars — a requirement that has not always been met.

The Biden administration found Louisiana had shortchanged Southern University to a tune of $1.2 billion less in comparison to LSU, the state’s land grant institution with a predominantly white student body. LSU did not admit Black students until the 1960s.

Former Southern University President Dennis Shields and former LSU President William Tate both called on the legislature to address the funding disparity.

“I know some people get a little bit uncomfortable when you talk about this issue, but facts are facts. Universities, such as Southern University, have been grossly underfunded,” McMeans said.

Even apart from Southern, higher education leaders in Louisiana say the state’s public colleges and universities are severely underfunded.

If state funding for higher education had kept pace with inflation over the past 10 years, higher education would be receiving approximately $850 million more, Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed said this week.

As inflation has gone up, state spending has largely remained frozen for the last three years, causing all of state government to tighten their belts.

“We do not have that type of one-time money for anyone at this stage,” Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said of Southern’s request. “It might be what they need, but it might not be what we can fill this session.”

McMeans said the $19 million would go toward recruiting more TOPS-eligible students, installing security cameras and lighting on campus, and updating Southern’s outdated IT infrastructure and research laboratories security.

Labs need secure keycard entry to qualify for certain federal grants, McMeans said.