Dean Urges LSU Dentistry School Close for Fund Lack

              Tuesday, May 27, 1969 THE SHREVEPORT TIMES
Request to Board of Supervisors
Dean Urges LSU Dentistry
School Close for Fund Lack
By DALE THORN
Times Capital Correspondent
BATON ROUGE — The dean
of the LSU School of Dentistry
Monday recommended that it be
closed for lack of funds and
there were reports of a move-ment
afoot to aid the dental
$chool at the expense of the new
LSU medical school in Shreve-port.
Dental school Dean Edmund E.
Seansonne said he has recom-mended
to the LSU Board of
Supervisors that the school's
operations be suspended unless
its appropriation is increased by
$446,048.
A source close to the governor
said some prominent New Or-leans
citizens plan to ask the
legislature to give the dental
school priority over the new
medical school. The spokesman
said their reasoning is that the
dental school is going into its
second year of operation while
the Shreveport medical school is
still awaiting its first class.
Gov. John McKeithen told the
Times he did not plan to get
involved in any feud between the
two schools.
To Seek Increase
Sen. Adrian Duplantier of New
Orleans said he will seek to
increase the dental school's
appropriation when it comes up
for a hearing later this week or
next in the Senate Finance
Committee.
Duplantier said he does not
have any specific ideas about
where the additional $446,000
would come from. Asked if there
were a movement under way to
divert that amount from the
Shreveport medical s c h o o l ' s
budget, Duplantier said, "I don't
have any personal knowledge of
such a movement."
Jeansonne said the minimum
amount required to operate the
dental school in the coming fiscal
year is $1,929,997. The executive
budget proposes only $1,483,949
for the dental school.
"I have recommended to the
Board of Supervisors that if
these additional funds are not
forthcoming, the operation of the
school be suspended," Jeansonne
said.
Caddo legislators took the
position that they would not
comment on the reports until
there'' was an overt movement.
Sen. J. Bennett Johnston Jr. of
Shreveport said one of the
reasons he had withdrawn a bill
against the domed stadium was
that Duplantier had warned that
if he pushed it, he could expect
the Shreveport medical school to
come under attack.
The dental school has 30
first-year students now and has
accepted another 30 for the
coming year.
"These students will find it
impossible at this late date to be
accepted into another dental
school," Jeansonne said.
The new medical school has
accepted 32 students for its first
class.
"With the phasing out of the
Loyola University School of
Dentistry, the LSU school will be
the only such facility in Louisia-na,
Mississippi and Arkansas,"
Jeansonne said. "At the present
time, the availability of dental
care in Louisiana is far below
the national standard, and sus-pension
of the development of
the school of dentistry will only
further aggravate the problem."
Other consequences of shutting
down the dental school, Jean-sonne
said, are that a $10.5
million federal grant for con-struction
of a new school "will,
in all likelihood, come under
review; an adverse effect on
future applications for federal
construction funds for health
facilities in Louisiana is certain;
and the reliability of the LSU
system in any future program
will be jeopardized."