Saying the status quo is not acceptable, Gov. Bobby Jindal says he will support legislation to consolidate Southern University at New Orleans and the University of New Orleans. Jindal says he supports a suggestion made today by the Colorado-based National Center for Higher Education Management Systems to create a “University of Greater New Orleans” and wants to use it as a starting point for drafting legislation. The school would merge SUNO and UNO into one new school, which would be part of the University of Louisiana system. The school also would collaborate more directly with the nearby two-year Delgado Community College, which has struggled to find facility space to meet its bulging enrollment.
House Speaker Jim Tucker, a Terrytown Republican, and State Sen. Conrad Appel, a Metairie Republican, joined Jindal at his news conference to endorse the merger. “This study says it loud and clear: to provide the education students in New Orleans deserve,” Tucker says.
The Board of Regents is set to vote Tuesday on the recommendations from the National Center for Higher Education Management; the other option presented today would redesign SUNO and UNO to ensure they have distinct purposes and don’t overlap functions. Jindal says that option “creates another management board” while essentially leaving the schools as is. The idea of a merger has generated loud criticism from the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, SUNO staff, alumni and students, Democratic Party leaders and others who call it an attack on historically black colleges and universities that won’t improve educational attainment.
