The proposed merger of the University of New Orleans and Southern University at New Orleans cleared its first hurdle when the House Education Committee, on a 10-5 vote, sent HB 537 by Speaker Jim Tucker to the House floor. Tucker had predicted last week the votes were there to clear committee, though the panel only voted after five hours of testimony, ranging from the governor to college officials to SUNO students. Jindal said the merger would have a “generational impact” that would better serve students and the community. In opposition, legislators and Southern officials argued that the Legislature should let the GRAD Act, passed last year, to raise admission standards and graduation rates any campuses are merged. Tucker and Jindal administration officials term the chances good of winning two-thirds approval in the House, though, if it passes there, the Senate could pose a greater challenge.
—Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, a leading critic of the Jindal administration, is the new vice chairman of the Senate committee that handles confirmation of top gubernatorial appointments. She replaces on the Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee Sen. David Heitmeier, D-Algiers, who has gone back to the Health & Welfare Committee. Among the confirmations to be heard later this session are the governor’s appointments to the Board of Regents, whose earlier all-white racial composition prompted a lawsuit challenging the board’s constitutional authority. The governor later appointed Albert Sam II, a black Baton Rouge surgeon.
(John Maginnis will publish a daily update on the legislative session at 3 p.m., available to LaPolitics Weekly subscribers on the Subscribers Only page at LaPolitics.com. You can register your user name and password on the Lapolitics home page.)
