The growth in out-of-state tuition has saved the University from the cuts other schools have made over the last five years, and has fueled its growth. Instead of a building boom, some schools can't maintain what they have or retain faculty. I believe LSU has been among the hardest hit. I don't know that our growth in out-of-state students is sustainable (personally, I'd like for it to be less than half), but many of the southeastern schools recruit hard in Atlanta (Bama, aubrun, MSU, Ole Miss and SC in particular). What we really need is, consistently, for more in-state students to attend Bama than aubrun, not just generate more graduates. We're ahead of them in that regard for now, after trailing them for a few decades.
RTR,
Tim