Tucker hopes SUNO remains a historically black college

House Speaker Jim Tucker says he hopes Southern University at New Orleans could keep its designation as a historically black college, even as he pushes to consolidate the school with nearby University of New Orleans. Tucker, R-Terrytown, who is sponsoring the merger bill, says he hasn’t received any guidance from accreditation officials or federal officials about whether a merged SUNO would be able to keep the “historically black college and university” tag, or “HBCU.” But he says if the HBCU status cannot be maintained, he still supports the consolidation effort (House Bill 537). “You don’t save an HBCU because it’s black. You save an HBCU because it’s an outstanding institution. We’re not there with SUNO,” Tucker says. The proposal by Tucker—and identical legislation in the Senate by Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie—would create a new University of Louisiana at New Orleans in the University of Louisiana System. The new ULNO would keep two separate colleges with different admissions criteria and program offerings. But the university would have one accreditation and one academic chief, leaving higher education leaders to question whether the HBCU status would be lost, along with federal grant dollars for schools with the designation. Black lawmakers and SUNO leaders, alumni and students have called the consolidation proposal racist and said it would diminish education opportunities for minority students. The merger would require two-thirds support of the Legislature to pass, a high hurdle for a controversial proposal.