Louisiana Voice

feath·er·bed

/ˈfeT͟Hərˌbed/

verb

gerund or present participle: featherbedding

1. BRITISH

provide (someone) with advantageous economic or working conditions.

• deliberately limit production or retain excess staff in (a business) in order to create jobs or prevent unemployment, typically as a result of a union contract.

The cost of a college education is going up – again – and maybe you’re wondering why.

When I was a student at Louisiana Tech (granted, this was a while back; I got my B.A. in 1970), my costs for a college education were about $100 per quarter (Tech is the only state school that employes the quarter system as opposed to semesters for all other schools).

When I first enrolled at Tech in 1961 (I dropped out to enter the military and returned as a veteran), tuition was an eye-popping $15, plus a few incidental fees and books.

That hundred-buck cost, of course, did not include housing (I lived at home), meals (I ate at home) or infirmary fees nor did it include books. Suffice it to say, those would’ve cost a tad more but still nothing like what it costs to set foot in a college classroom today.

Nowadays, depending on the number of hours you take, Tech can cost in the neighborhood of 10 grand. That’s a pretty good neighborhood. Just down the road, one can settle in at Grambling State University for about $7,700 per year but it’s a smidgen more at the state’s flagship university, LSU, where it will cost an in-state student about $12,000 per year – more than $28,000 for out-of-staters.

That’s for now.

HOUSE BILL 862, by Rep. Jason Hughes (D-New Orleans), has passed the House by a whopping 90-7 vote (to see how your representative voted, go HERE). That bill gives colleges and universities free rein to jack tuition and fees ever higher, making it increasingly unaffordable for many kids to go to college, even with TOPS help.

So, where does that money go? I mean, LSU, for example has more than 37,000 students. The University of Louisiana Lafayette, the state’s second-largest public university, has 16,200. Tech has 12,400.

But for our purposes, we will consider LSU.

LSU has some 5,800 employees on its Baton Rouge campus.

Of that 5,800, there are 1,416 full-time professors (355), associate professors (327), assistant professors (353) and instructors (381). The pay spreads are rather stark. Professors make from $80,000 to $312,000); associate professors from a low of $56,000 to a high of $240; assistant professors between $50,000 and $190,000 and instructors between a poverty-level $16,000 and $106,000 (except for one part-time instructor whose pay was list at $114,000).

And while there are 1,416 full-time teachers on campus for those 37,000 students, for the 614 total athletes at LSU (315 men and 299 women), there are:

• 18 head coaches – one at $475,000, one at $400,000, two others at more at $380,000 and $310,000 (not counting millions that the Tiger Athletic Foundation might be chipping in);
• 7 assistant head coaches – two at $400,000 each, another at $355,000;
• 52 assistant coaches – 7 at $400,000 each, three others at between $310,000 and $350,000;
• 1 athletic director at $525,000;
• 13 assistant athletic directors earning between $92,000 and $425000;
• 8 trainers ($51,000 to $91,000);
• 7 assistant trainers ($64,000 to $105,000 and yes, I’m also stumped as to how assistant trainers earn more than trainers).

As near as I can figure it out, there are 106 full-time employees in the athletic department to tend to the needs of 614 student-athletes.

But not to worry. The Ol’ War Skule has 62 librarians to handle the requirements of 37,000 students. The breakdown:

• 23 librarians ($42,000 to $100,000);
• 21 assistant head librarians ($55,000 to $104,000);
• 15 assistant librarians ($46,000 to $79,000)
• 3 library specialists ($34,000 to $50,000).

It gets better.

• 13 auditors ($55,000 – $258,000);
• 52 accountants ($51,000 – $88,000)
• 7 accounting technicians ($40,000 – $50,000
• 3 purchasing agents ($42,000 – $50,000)
• 5 assistant purchasing directors ($104,000 each)
• 50 business managers ($55,000 – $110,000)
• 12 directors of business and fiscal affairs ($70,000 – $178,000)
• 34 business & fiscal staff members ($44,000 – $70,000)
• 7 attorneys ($70,000 – $379,000);
• 3 paralegals ($61,000 – $139,000)
• 45 department heads ($67,000 – $281,000);
• 14 project leaders ($68,000 – $100,000)
• 4 project supervisors ($70,000 – $85,000);
• 12 project coordinators ($45,000 – $77,000) would someone please explain the difference between a leader, a supervisor and a coordinator?
• 53 program managers ($58,000 – $103,000);
• 34 administrative program specialists ($47,000 – $69,000);
• 24 executive directors ($74,000 – $275,000);
• 72 directors of academic affairs ($84,000 – $177,000)
• 111 associate directors ($45,000 – $147,000);
• 225 assistant directors ($41,000 – $125,000);
• 61 assistants to the director ($42,000 – $65,000) I don’t know the difference, either, but what on earth do all those directors direct?
• 258 managers ($33,000 – $143,000);
• 12 assistant managers ($47,000 – $52,000;
• 53 program managers ($58,000 – $103,000);
• 23 analysts ($50,000 – $150,000);
• 178 computer analysts ($43,000 – $150,000);

There’s more:

• 12 project coordinators ($45,000 – $77,000);
• 66 administrative coordinators ($30,000 – $53,000);
• 554 plain ol’ coordinators ($30,000 – $65,000). Wait HOW many? How many coordinates would that many coordinators coordinate if they weren’t coordinating all over each other?
• 16 deans ($113,000 – $290,000);
• 32 associate deans ($69,000 – $221,000);
• 38 assistant deans ($73,000 – $158,000);
• 94 post-doctorate research scientists ($43,000 – $63,000);
• 36 research scientists ($40,000 – $91,000);
• 86 research associates ($43,000 – $63,000);
• 79 counselors ($40,000 – $74,000);
• 4 junior counselors ($45,000 – $55,000);
• 114 nonteaching professionals ($33,000 – $120,000);
• 1 interpreter ($93,000)
• 1 president ($725,000);
• 11 vice presidents ($230,000 – $475,000)

Eleven vice presidents? We as a nation of more than 300 million don’t seem to need more than one vice president.

Looking over some of these positions, I’m reminded of a term that was specific to railroading back in the day called featherbedding. But hey, that’s just me. They’re going up with tuition and fees so even more may be placed on the payrolls

If you like any of the three stories below, or if you appreciate truly independent journalism, then I would respectfully ask that you consider helping to keep the stories coming during our May fundraising drive.

The Jeff Landry administration promises to keep me busy. That, along with ongoing investigations in parishes throughout the state – from Shreveport to New Orleans, from St. Tammany to Calcasieu – will require expenditures for gasoline, overnight lodging, and public records (when I can get them).

I humbly ask that you give what you can: $5, $10, $20 or whatever. Unlike some other online services, I don’t hold monthly fundraisers. They are twice a year: May and October. Those and the sale of my books are the only sources of revenue to keep the investigative stories coming.

You may click on the yellow DONATE button to the immediate right or mail a check to: Tom Aswell, 107 North College Street West, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70726.

As always, your continued support is appreciated more than you know.

New Orleans attorney Clancy Dubos and John Stanton, writing for Gambit, have dubbed Jeff Landry as the “ CLOWNFISH”  in obvious comparison to another power-hungry Louisiana governor, Huey P. “Kingfish” Long.

Obviously, it is not a complimentary comparison but neither should we be dismissive of the label or of Landry’s ambition to become the most powerful Louisiana governor since Huey and possibly the most powerful governor in America.

We have already seen (in the story below) how he wants to

• Take control of PUBLIC DEFENSE SYSTEM;
• Slam the door on the our right to examine public records;
• Appoint all 11 members of the already weakened State Ethics Board. Wonder if the board’s vote to penalize Landry for failure to disclose trips aboard a donor’s plane?
• Take full control of appointing nearly all of the members of the state Civil Service Commission (sure, that’s smart: have an “independent” civil service board totally beholden to the governor. What could possibly go wrong?)
• Appoint all Supreme Court justices (I’m ambivalent about this one. Elected justices can be tied too closely to high-dollar law firms and lawyers who contribute to their campaigns).
• Shove through a new State Constitution in a mind-boggling two- or three-weeks’ time (granted, the current constitution is bloated and could use a re-boot – but in two weeks’ time with no public comment allowed? C’mon!)
• Obtain more control over higher education and its governing boards;
• Remove JOB REQUIREMENTS for industrial tax breaks (in fact, he has already issued an executive order doing just that, cratering to the interests of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry rather than placing the emphasis where it belongs – on employment and
• While we weren’t watching, quietly pushed for passage of HOUSE BILL 974 by Rep. Josh Carlson (R-Lafayette). The bill passed the House with 65 votes. Thirty-eight members had the cojones – and intelligence – to vote no.

What that bill will do, pending Senate concurrence, will remove the requirement that library directors be state-certified.

Oh, you still have to be state-certified to be a flower arranger but libraries? Why, if this bill becomes law, anyone off the street may be hired to run our libraries.

Let me re-phrase that: Any self-righteous, judgmental, Bible-thumping evangelical may – and will – be hired to decide what the public can and cannot read. Many parishes have already started down that slippery slope toward censorship. This will put them into the express lane.

These people are not our friends and what they are attempting is nothing but a series of brazen moves toward grabbing ever more control by the zealots who have chosen to blindly follow the equivalent of a side show barker who hawks the “giant Russian rat” that turns out to be a common Louisiana nutria. (I drew this comparison from a carnival in Livingston Parish several years back that pulled that exact ruse. At least it only cost me a quarter and the comparison is valid.)

Update: I received a response to the public records request I made to Jeff Landry. That’s the one in which I asked for all correspondence between Landry and Sen. Heather Cloud. Here is that response from Landry’s Deputy Executive Council Jeffrey Wale:

From: Gov PublicRecords <GovPublicRecords@la.gov>
Sent: Friday, May 3, 2024 3:07 PM
To: Tom Aswell
Subject: RE: RESPONSE REQUESTED FOR PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST

Mr. Aswell,

After a diligent search of our office’s records, and to the best of my information and belief, our office has no records responsive to your request.

This completes our response to you, and our office will close our file in this matter. 

Thank you.

Jeffrey Wale

Not that I actually expected compliance, but I since came across this PROPOSED BILL from 2023. Sen. Heather Cloud filed this bill last year (as Landry was ramping up his gubernatorial campaign) in reaction to the public library hysteria and this year filed SB 482 which would severely restrict, if not outright abolish, the public’s right to view public records.

Again, both bills were filed by Cloud. Landry was and remains a staunch proponent of both measures.

And we are to believe the two have never communicated by text or email?

Connect the dots here and draw your own conclusions.

The Advocate-Times Picayune on Sunday trumpeted the results of a poll the publication said reflected strong backing for Jeff Landry’s political agenda.

The story said Landry received a 56 percent overall favorable rating in the poll, conducted by New Orleans pollster Ron Faucheux on behalf of the newspaper but in reality, there was little chance for it to show a different result; it may as well have been commissioned by Landry or the Louisiana Republican Party.

I happened to have been one of the 800 Louisiana voters who received a call and participated in the poll and from the way the questions were structured, only an anarchist could possibly have taken issue with Landry’s agenda.

It was a classic “push-poll,” where the questions are couched in such a way as to elicit the desired response and for The Advocate-Times Picayune to promote the results as news is, simply put, lazy reporting.

Ron Faucheux is, by all accounts, a reputable, non-partisan political consultant but this poll was less than credible – not because I happen to disagree with many of Landry’s positions (I do) but because the questions afforded me no opportunity to say how I really felt about certain issues.

For example: yes, education in Louisiana is a problem but allowing parental participation is playing with fire. A single complaint from a parent can wreak havoc on what books a child may read or what history he or she may be taught. That’s not improving education; it’s instilling mass confusion for teachers and principals.

Crime, too, is a huge problem but gutting the budgets of public defenders is certainly not the solution. Nor does it address the problem by making it more difficult for the wrongfully convicted to have their cases re-heard. And there have already been some 100 individuals who have been exonerated after serving decades at Angola for crimes they never committed, thanks to over-zealous prosecutors willing to sell their souls for a quick conviction.

There were others, but every single question (except for my religion, which I refused to reveal), was a multiple-choice question that made me to be either a full-throated dedicated Landry supporter or a bomb-thrower. I’m neither.

But I don’t think the pollster recorded any of my responses after I insisted on expounding on my answers.