Nicholls president says partnering with industry crucial to success

Newly inaugurated Nicholls State President Bruce Murphy wants the university to strive to partner with industry to prepare students to enter the job market, he said Monday.
Murphy was the guest speaker at the St. Mary Industrial Group’s monthly meeting at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City. Murphy was inaugurated as the fifth president of Nicholls State University last week after being selected as the university’s president in September 2013.
Prior to his appointment at Nicholls State, he served as vice president for academic affairs at Air University in Montgomery, Ala. He is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.
House Bill 1033 in the Legislature would create the Workforce Innovation for a More Successful Economy Fund dividing $40 million among the state’s universities and colleges to fund workforce-related projects, Murphy said.
The most important part of the program is that to be able to receive any of that money, institutions must partner with private industry getting them to contribute 20 percent for certain projects, Murphy said. For example, if a school came up with a $100,000 project and could get businesses to contribute $20,000, the state would give $80,000 toward the project, he said.
“The idea is that it has to be an identified need for the workforce of Louisiana,” Murphy said.
South Central Louisiana Technical College Regional Director Earl Meador said the program would be important for two-year schools and community colleges in addition to four-year universities. “It’s the first time we really have something on the table that makes a difference for all of us,” Meador said.
Part of the partnership with industry should involve getting feedback from industry professionals and provide internships for students, Murphy said.
Murphy also emphasized the importance of higher education in determining someone’s career earning potential. Research shows that the more education someone has the more that person’s lifetime earnings will be, Murphy said. However, occupational choice can trump degree level, Murphy said.
Certain occupations have higher wage or salary earning potential with a lower level degree than other occupations with a higher level degree, Murphy said. Still, degree level still matters within a specific field, he said.
State universities and colleges may see a break in the mid-year budget cuts that had been occurring, Murphy said. Gov. Bobby Jindal told higher education officials that the state will not cut universities’ budgets mid-year as the state has done the last five years, he said.
Not cutting state universities’ budgets may allow Nicholls State to give some faculty pay raises, he said. Though tuition will continue to increase, more money in universities’ operating budgets will allow them to make improvements to their campuses, Murphy said.
The other component of the WISE program is to focus on four- or five-star jobs, Murphy said. Those jobs include everything from engineering, technical and communication jobs to business and finance occupations to nursing careers, he said. “They’re not excluding anybody,” Murphy said.
Over the past 15 to 20 years the state’s contribution to university has continually decreased. “I think the days when the state would pick up the big part of the tab are gone,” Murphy said.
In the last five years, Nicholls State’s enrollment has dropped slightly but the number of employees has dropped at a greater rate, he said. Compared to other schools similar to Nicholls State, though funding was well below the average, the university was on par with other universities in academic categories, Murphy said.
Murphy wants every student who comes to Nicholls State to succeed, have the opportunities to learn their fields of study and get connected to be able to have rewarding careers, he said.
He wants to promote a spirit of innovation examples of which include unmanned aerial vehicles being used offshore and Nicholls State’s culinary institute, he said.
Internalization is one of the biggest challenges for the university. Murphy plans to increase the study abroad programs and increase the number of international students at Nicholls State, he said.
Murphy said understanding and responding to the needs of the communities that Nicholls State serves is important.