NEW ORLEANS – When Ronald Mason resigned as president of Jackson State University last year to take the helm of Louisiana’s Southern University System, he was the focus of a bitter debate over a proposed merger of some of Mississippi’s historically Black universities. He was against it; then he was for it – sort of. Mason came up with his own plan, but opponents leveled all proposals before they got traction.
Now, just months after he began his tenure at Southern, Mason is once again in the middle of a merger imbroglio. Just as Gov. Haley Barbour had floated the idea with the Mississippi legislature, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently announced he is proposing a study of merging historically Black Southern University at New Orleans with the larger, nearby University of New Orleans, which has predominantly White enrollment. SUNO is in the Southern System and UNO is in the Louisiana State University System.
The governor is asking the Louisiana Board of Regents, which oversees higher education in the state, to determine the feasibility of merging the two institutions into one and possibly moving the new entity into the state’s other higher education bureaucracy — the University of Louisiana System.
“It is important that this study remain an objective analysis, driven by facts and data, predicated on the best interests of students,” Jindal said in a press statement. “We will wait until we receive the completed study before formulating or recommending any legislative proposals for the upcoming session.” In the press release, the governor also noted that SUNO has a 5 percent graduation rate and UNO has a 21 percent rate.
Dr. Joseph Bouie Jr., president of SUNO’s faculty senate and a former chancellor of the university, says the study is the culmination of years of efforts by state officials to shut down SUNO — efforts that Bouie says have included withholding FEMA funds for repairs to buildings – “and we are still back to 85 percent of pre-Katrina enrollment because this community needs SUNO despite everything that is being done to discourage students from coming here.”
Buoie says, “Not a single faculty member – to a person – not one, is in favor of it.” He said a 2006 study by the Board of Regents concluded the school should not merge because of their distinct missions and roles.
Meanwhile, Mason already had drawn criticism when he said in an October speech that he favored a possible merger of the two schools – with UNO becoming part of the predominantly Black Southern System.
