McNeese Budget Cuts

By Chaney Ferguson
Editor, The Times




McNeese is beginning this academic year with a 13 percent reduction in state appropriation. Last December the university’s budget received a cut of $1.9 million. The current total of the budget cut, including the one in December, comes to $5.6 million.

The university’s main concern is for students to carry on without noticing the impact of the cuts.
“We hope that students will not noticeably see an impact from the reductions. We did reductions based off what would least affect the students and classroom instruction,” said Candace Townsend, Director of Public Information and Communications at McNeese State University.

Reductions were made to the various areas that are least likely to affect students.

“Offices and non-academic areas or academic support areas will have a bigger hit to their budget than say academic departments and labs,” said Townsend.

In order to avoid layoffs and elimination of academic programs, reductions have been made to academic support areas such as operating services, supplies, equipment purchases, and student work-study jobs.

Other areas receiving reductions include non-teaching graduate assistantships, part-time instructors, funds for general maintenance, facility repairs and athletics.

“Through significant reductions to all areas of the budget, holding merit raises and 70 vacant positions, we are not eliminating any academic programs, we are not planning layoffs of full-time faculty, nor salary reductions or unpaid furloughs for support staff this year,” said McNeese President Dr. Hebert.

McNeese is focusing on its highest priority, its commitment to academics.

In order to achieve this goal, employees are taking on extra classes to cover the vacant positions. Faculty members are reducing their time for research and other scholarly activities.

“We are all having to work with less. By losing release time and working full loads, we won’t have as much time to commit to projects, but it has also allowed us to freeze merit pay and we have not had to layoff any full-time employees,” said Townsend.

Although reductions have created a strain on employees, the community is responding in a positive way by showing how important McNeese is to the area.

“Even before the budget cuts were finalized, the McNeese Foundation informed us that over their past fiscal year that there has been an increase of 34 percent in donations. Those donations are mainly for academic scholarships,” said Townsend.

A report was conducted in March by an impartial corporation out of Baton Rouge. Townsend said the results of the report confirm what many at McNeese knew to be true already.

The report states:
The University of Louisiana System by Applied Technology Research Corp. shows McNeese State University has a $335 million annual economic impact on Louisiana.

McNeese employees contribute $55 million directly to the economy while McNeese retirees spend an additional $11 million.

McNeese students spend $145 million in areas such as housing, food, entertainment, telecommunications and transportation, while visitors to McNeese events expend an additional $47 million.

Overall there is an $8 return for every $1 the state invests in higher education.
Graduates of McNeese contribute to the local workforce.

The report reveals the impact:
• Approximately one-third of the engineers working in the local petrochemical industry are McNeese graduates.
• Nearly 80 percent of all the nurses working in Lake Charles and the surrounding communities are McNeese graduates.
• School districts in the five-parish area rank among the state’s top 10 districts in high school graduation rates and more than 70 percent of the educators in the five-parish area earned a degree from McNeese.
• Nearly 70 percent of the public four-year college degrees earned by residents of Southwest Louisiana come from McNeese.
• Over the last 10 years, close to 13, 000 students have graduated from McNeese and added $640 million to Louisiana’s economy.

Governor Jindal is taking a look at higher education by forming the Tucker Commission. The commission is looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the system.

“At this time we don’t know what the impact will be. We are looking within, to our own strengths and prioritize our resources,” said Townsend.

With the next couple of years looking economically grim for higher education, Townsend says that McNeese is vigilant about cost-saving methods so they can prepare for whatever the future will bring.

Where Are They: Keeping Tabs On Sex Offenders

By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA



Sheriff Tony Mancuso said Calcasieu Parish has between 260-280 registered sex offenders.
Over the past year, a single registry database called Offender Watch has allowed the state to streamline sex offender information, reducing the problem of tracking and registering sex offenders.

“The registry is something that we always used. We had to pay for it. Now the state requires that we have that system and they actually fund it for us,” said Detective Scott Miller with the Sheriff’s Department’s Sex Offender Compliance and Awareness Program (CAP).
“We have been doing that since about ten years ago. We are ahead of the game in that area,” said Mancuso.

Miller said the registry is still a work in progress, but believes it will all work out once all the parishes get in line with the registry.

“We can look at each others sex offenders and if they move from one parish to our parish it automatically sends us an email stating that this guy is moving to our area and we need to go find him,” said Miller.

Governor Bobby Jindal said the registry is a critical step towards enforcing new laws instituted since he took office.

“By having a program that allows various law enforcement agencies to share, streamline, and enforce the sex predator registration and monitoring process, our law enforcement officials are better prepared to track down these predators and protect our children,” said Governor Jindal.
There are two ways to deal with sex offenders. First, the investigation, how law enforcement pursues the case and ultimately gets a conviction. The next stage is keeping track of them when they get out of jail.

“The legislature has changed some of the laws. They look at a sex offender differently if they are a rapist or if they are a pedophile,” said Mancuso.

There are different tiers to being a sex offender. These tiers or levels of offense determine how often the offender has to check in with law enforcement.

The first tier requires check in every year for a felony of carnal knowledge. The second tier involves molestation of a juvenile or anything involving minors. The second tier requires check in every six months.

The third tier is aggravated assault which means the assailant used a weapon during the crime. The assailant has to check in every three months and register for life as a sex offender.

“When the offender is checking in they give their phone number, place of employment, address, vehicles that they drive, any tattoos that may have changed, hair style, and picture,” said Miller.
Miller and others in CAP conduct regular compliance checks in the parish.

“We will pick an area and have every offender checked within a three month period,” said Miller.
“If they are not in compliance then he files the necessary charges with the District Attorney’s office. If they are on parole we notify their probation officer and try to get a warrant for their arrest for either probation violation or just the violation of not notifying us that they had changed addresses or locations,” said Mancuso.

Miller said a lot of the current problems are people coming from other states.
“In January of 2008, we came in line with the Adam Walsh Act and Texas hasn’t come in line with that yet,” said Miller.

The Adam Walsh Act calls for state conformity to various aspects of sex offender registration, including information that must be collected, duration of registration requirement for classifications of offenders, verification of registry information, access to and sharing of information, and penalties for failure to register as required.

“We are getting a lot of offenders coming from Texas. We aren’t being notified about it. A lot of them have absconded and come over here. We aren’t getting them until we get them on a traffic stop or something like that where we run their name and they come up as a sex offender from another state,” said Miller.

Mancuso said all states need to be on the same page.

“The Adam Walsh Act is trying to make sure that we don’t just do it in Louisiana, but we do it nationwide so we can have better tracking,” said Mancuso.

In the future, serious offenders may have to wear GPS tracking systems so law enforcement knows where they are at all times.

“That hasn’t evolved as fast as we would have liked it to,” said Mancuso.

The Sheriff’s Department website www.cpso.com has a sex offender registry.

“You can enter your address and see what sex offenders live in your area,” said Miller.
The registry provides pictures and gives a reason for conviction.

“If there is a sex offender living on your street show the picture to your child. You don’t have to explain to them what he was convicted of, just tell them he is a bad person and to stay away form him,” said Miller.

“We will go out and speak to civic organizations if there is a concern. We will meet with them and explain how the program works,” said Mancuso.

Deputy Joanne Pape works in the CAP unit promoting awareness. Pape speaks to communities and does neighborhood watch.

Miller and Pape teach some classes around the state. Mancuso said other cities use Calcasieu Parish as a model for what is going right.

“We feel like we are doing right. We are trying,” said Mancuso.