BATON ROUGE, La. – Lawmakers proposing the consolidation of the historically Black Southern University at New Orleans with the largely White campus of the University of New Orleans are recommending a merger more sweeping than the idea backed by state higher education leaders.
The measure by House Speaker Jim Tucker and Sen. Conrad Appel, both Republicans, would create a new University of Louisiana at New Orleans in the University of Louisiana System.
But while the Board of Regents, the state’s top higher education panel, backed a proposal that would keep the schools with separate academic officers and accreditations, the bill filed for consideration and supported by Gov. Bobby Jindal would require the merged campuses to seek one accreditation and one academic chief.
“This legislation creates a new path forward for improving the higher education system for all students in the greater New Orleans region,” Jindal said in a statement on Friday. “The current system is simply failing our students, and the new system proposed in Sen. Appel’s bill will provide our students with the opportunity they deserve to gain a great education and a rewarding career.”
The concept will be considered in the regular legislative session that begins April 25, over the opposition of Black lawmakers and SUNO leaders, alumni and students who have called the consolidation proposal racist and said it would diminish education opportunities for minority students.
It would require two-thirds support of the Legislature to pass, a high hurdle for a controversial proposal.
The new University of Louisiana at New Orleans would keep two separate colleges with different admissions criteria and program offerings. A branch campus of the nearby Delgado Community College would offer remedial courses and college transfer degree programs at the site.
