Lombardi proposes moving Louisiana Tech into LSU System

LSU System President John Lombardi says shifting Louisiana Tech University into the LSU System would “align the research aspirations and accomplishments of LaTech with the extraordinary research capacity of the LSU System.” Lombardi laid out a proposal to move Louisiana Tech into the LSU System today as he began two days of meetings with LSUS and LSU Health Sciences Center faculty, staff, and students to discuss possible reorganization of the LSU System. Along with that move, Lombardi says he wants to create an alliance of public and private universities, community colleges, and technical schools in northwest Louisiana to offer new academic programs to geographically bound students at LSU Shreveport and throughout the region. To be known as the Northwest Louisiana Initiative, the postsecondary collaborative plan grew from work by the new LSU System Work Group on Organization and Collaboration, which is made up of LSU Board members and LSU System staffers. A special task force made up of representatives from participating institutions would work out details on which programs would be shared under the Northwest Initiative, but Lombardi says the first programs could be in operation within a year. Lombardi says the collaboration would quickly boost ties among regional community colleges and other public and private universities, such as Centenary College, Grambling University and Northwestern University. Read a Business Report article from July 2011 on the proposed move of Louisiana Tech into the LSU System here.