My story on the Lampkins Collection at SUSLA ran today.

This was an amazing story to tell. SUSLA has a small archive compared to LSUS who has an entire floor dedicated to it.

Archives, especially in a city the size of Shreveport, are important because they provide a safe haven for the area's history. They also provide insight to times gone-by. Lampkins' collection is like that. He attended Shreveport's high school for black students during segregation. He opened his own school in the 1950s and even though in Caddo Parish Schools.

For musicians, this collection is also a gold mine. Among the items are recordings of jazz musicians that available anywhere, even iTunes.

The collection will be open to the public fall 2010.

The archive is also a story of growth for SUSLA, whose enrollment has soar during the past two semesters. The strength and prominence of a school is determined by several factors: winning sports teams, research dollars, faculty research, library, and archives. For a school SUSLA's size, this was a substantial get.

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The cousin is coming

Just got an invitation to Southern University-Shreveport's fall convocation.

This year's speaker is Jeff Johnson, aka Cousin Jeff. He's the host of BET's "The Truth with Jeff Johnson."

Fall convocation is a ceremonial pep talk really. Depending on the college or university, students and faculty come together to get inspired for the upcoming year. The tradition around the event is different for every college. At Centenary, the freshmen are applauded as they enter the chapel.

I'm not sure if SUSLA has any traditions around their convocation; I didn't cover last year because of another story. But I'm looking forward to see SUSLA's traditions in action.

And of course to hear what Cousin Jeff has to say.

What: SUSLA Convocation with Jeff Johnson
When: 10 a.m.Wed. Sept 23
Where: SUSLA Gym (MLK Campus)

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Swine Flu on local campuses

Our Baton Rouge reporter, Mike Hasten, wrote a story about colleges and universities and swine flu Friday.

So far in the area we know of LSUS' four cases, three of which happened two weeks ago and one was reported on Thursday of last week.

We know that LSUS uses the LSU System's plan for swine flu. Southern University-Shreveport has its own plan as does Northwestern State University.

I haven't seen plans for Centenary or BPCC yet and I haven't heard from SUSLA if they've had any reportings of the flu. I'll keep you posted if they do.

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Endowments nationwide are taking a hit

Just saw a tweet from National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities  about Stanford University letting 412 employees go after a 30 percent drop in its endowment.

The letting happened over the past 8 months but 60 more people will lose their jobs by the end of the year, according the press release from the university.

Some background: Private colleges such as Stanford and, locally, Centenary College depend on endowments to survive. Endowments are, at its essence, the interest from donations.

When a donor gives money, the college invests it. The invested money is called the prinicpal and can never be touched. Ever. That money can be invested in anything including stocks. The money made from the donation is what is used to fund the college and/or programs on campus. Professorships and chairs are also funded this way.

So the older the donation, the bigger the return in a good or average economy. But in a not-so-good economy, the interest doesn't grow as much or as quickly. That means things have to be cut. On a college campus it's either people or programs.

This is different for a public university or college since they also have another source of funding--state money.

I did a story about local endowments and how they were performing back in March. It wasn't going well at the time.

At LSU-Shreveport, the endowment took a 17.3 percent hit by March 2009 (the fiscal year goes from June to July)

"In the 11 years I've been here, I've never worked at a loss," said Glenda Erwin, vice chancellor for university development, at the time.

The university invests it's prinicpal in equities and stocks and strive for an 8 percent return, although it only uses 4 percent.

Centenary's endowment was down 21 percent as of Dec. 31. The college's $100 million endowment is 30 percent of the budget. It invests its prinicpal in U.S. and global stocks and bonds.

Southern University-Shreveport has a small endowment that was recently started. At the time of the March article, the college's $400,000 endowment lost about $5,000.

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