Legislators approve transferring UNO to the LSU System. What happens next?
Flowers grow Dec. 15, 2022, in front of the University of New Orleans sign on Lakeshore Drive. (Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator)
Louisiana legislators have approved legislation that will kick off a lengthy process to transfer the financially embattled University of New Orleans to the LSU System from the University of Louisiana System.
Senate Bill 202 by Sen. Jimmy Harris, D-New Orleans, easily passed the House Monday and already has Senate approval. It must receive approval from Gov. Jeff Landry before it takes effect.
The university's likely return to LSU's control is in response to UNO's acute budget crisis. The school faces a $30 million budget shortfall and has implemented a spending freeze, layoffs and staff furloughs in an attempt to make ends meet.
The proposed state budget, which lawmakers have to approve by Thursday, includes $20 million to pay off UNO's remaining debts and $450,000 for a financial and academic audit of the university.
Harris' legislation spells out several steps before the transition can be finalized.
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By Aug. 1, UNO President Kathy Johnson must send a letter to the Southern Association for Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the accrediting body for most Louisiana colleges and universities, seeking approval for a change in UNO's governance.
The LSU System Board of Supervisors must set up a transition committee that will make recommendations to the board based on the audit's findings. The transition committee's meetings are subject to the state's open meetings law, meaning it must meet and take any votes in public.
The committee must be made up of legislators and stakeholders from the greater New Orleans region, and it must submit its report to the state Board of Regents and legislative education committees no later than April 1.
The legislation instructs the UL System Board of Supervisors to work with their LSU counterparts so the transfer can take place immediately after SACSCOC gives its approval.
Before the transfer receives accreditation approval, the UL and LSU boards are instructed to enter into agreements to transfer as many administrative and supervisory functions as possible to the LSU System before final approval is given. The UL board is also instructed to continue to balance UNO's budget in close collaboration with the LSU board.
UNO's fiscal troubles are related to an enrollment decline. The school had a student body of around 17,000 before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with an immediate drop to around 6,000 after the storm. For the fall 2024 semester, its total enrollment was 6,488.
Unlike UNO, every school in the LSU System has reported enrollment increases over the past few years, in contrast to nationwide trends of declining student numbers on college campuses.
UNO had been in the LSU System since its founding 1958 until 2011, when alumni and boosters applauded the switch to the UL System because many felt the university was overshadowed by LSU.
UNO would be the only undergraduate degree-granting school in the LSU System classified as an R2 university, meaning it has high levels of research activity, second only to LSU's main campus, which is a R1 school with the highest research activity rating.
In the UL System, two other campuses have research-level rankings: UL Lafayette, an R1 school, and Louisiana Tech, an R2.
UNO would be the only other school in the LSU System with an NCAA Division I athletics program.
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