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My manifesto (or, Why I won’t stop writing this blasted blog)
By Robert Mann Almost three years ago, I created a blog, which I eventually began to call “Something Like the Truth.” At the time, I had not heard Carl Bernstein, the former Washington Post journalist...
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Sinking flagship: LSU prepares paperwork for declaring bankruptcy
#81990495 / gettyimages.com By Robert Mann LSU President F. King Alexander’s stunning announcement Wednesday that he’s drawing up official bankruptcy papers for the school is just one step short of...
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For Jindal, if the choice is tax hikes vs closing LSU, it’s “Bye, bye LSU”
#456738102 / gettyimages.com By Robert Mann I was talking with a friend the other day about Louisiana’s massive budget shortfall and the threat it poses to higher education, in general, and LSU, in...
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Shots fired: What’s the meaning and the fallout over LSU’s decision to...
By Robert Mann The word about LSU’s financial woes, particularly the threat of academic bankruptcy, is now national news. From the Boston Globe to Bloomberg News to the Houston Chronicle to Al Jazeera...
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Les Miles is silent on higher ed cuts, but LSU AD Joe Alleva is speaking out
#459977381 / gettyimages.com By Robert Mann Surely, LSU head football coach Les Miles is worried that if his school does not survive the current legislative session, his football team goes down with...
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Louisiana needs its own “GI bill” for higher education: Matt Higgins
#175451088 / gettyimages.comBy Matt Higgins The Louisiana Legislature is yet again debating whether higher education should be properly funded. Such narrow thinking used to not be part of the American...
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Shell game: Shouldn’t higher education leaders have more integrity than Bobby...
#172190146 / gettyimages.com By Robert Mann What example do Louisiana’s higher education leaders set by promoting the deceit and chicanery that is the Student Assessment for a Valuable Education (SAVE)...
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Louisiana lawmakers should be writing Bobby Jindal, not Grover Norquist
#464522230 / gettyimages.com “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” ― Groucho Marx “Politics is the art of the...
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Edwards, Angelle, Dardenne speak out against Jindal/Norquist SAVE credit
By Robert Mann Three of the four candidates for Louisiana governor spoke out Monday against the SAVE Act, the controversial $1,500 tax credit that Gov. Bobby Jindal and the state’s Senate have approved...
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LSU, you have a problem
By Robert Mann If the LSU Student Government Association (SGA) wanted to alienate some of higher education’s most dependable allies — lawmakers who, over the years, have vigorously fought Gov. Bobby...
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Candidates for Louisiana governor should leave no college student behind
Photo by Kiri Walton, courtesy of NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Robert Mann Whoever moves into Louisiana’s Governor’s Mansion in January will replace a chief executive who not only ignored college...
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Text of Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne’s Endorsement of Rep. John Bel Edwards
Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne Remarks November 5, 2015 I am a Republican. I have been one since the early 1970s when I helped Henson Moore’s election to the United States Congress. I will remain a Republican....
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The LSU Board must go
By Robert Mann Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards will not have the power to fire members of the LSU Board of Supervisors when he takes office in January. The board’s 14 members (all but one extra student...
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Leonard Fournette, lobbyist?
Memorandum To: LSU President F. King Alexander From: Robert Mann Re: A Bold Strategy for Restoring LSU’s funding It’s time to shake up LSU’s lobbying strategy. Persuading legislators with facts is...
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Why so many silent college faculty? Here’s one reason
By Robert Mann I sometimes wonder why more faculty members at LSU and elsewhere don’t speak up about how their schools have been defunded over the past eight years. It frustrates me that teachers and...
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The best of times, the worst of times: Inside LSU’s Middleton Library and the...
By Robert Mann In my column on NOLA.com | Times-Picayune that appeared online Friday morning, I write about the opulence of LSU’s Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes compared to the...
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LSU library’s decay is symbolic of Louisiana’s misplaced priorities
Plastic sheeting that protects copies of the Congressional Record in the basement of LSU’s Middleton Library By Robert Mann I once volunteered to proctor the state’s LEAP test in a ramshackle,...
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Many of LSU decrepit buildings are inhospitable, inaccessible to disabled...
LSU’s Himes Hall is one of several building on campus without an elevator From the LSU Daily Reveille, October 2015: By Carrie Grace Henderson When interdisciplinary studies senior Sean Thompson treks...
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The disgraceful windows of LSU’s Hatcher and Johnston halls
Rusted window of LSU’s Hatcher HallBy Robert Mann LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva has said that when he first arrived at LSU, he was struck by the poor condition of Tiger Stadium, particularly its...
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Mike the Tiger threatened by leak in LSU’s Foster Hall
The first Mike the Tiger, who is housed in the LSU Museum of Natural Science in Foster HallBy Robert Mann In our continuing saga about the crumbling LSU campus, we look at Foster Hall, just north of...
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