Latest news with #JimmyHarris
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
UNO to rejoin LSU system after 14 years in a major Louisiana higher ed shift
University of New Orleans In a significant restructuring of the Louisiana higher education landscape, legislators have approved the transfer of the University of New Orleans ( UNO ) from the University of Louisiana (UL) System back to the Louisiana State University (LSU) System. This decision marks a major development in US public higher education, with implications for governance, funding, and institutional identity. The move, approved by both the Louisiana House and Senate, is part of a broader effort to address UNO's worsening financial crisis. Senate Bill 202, sponsored by Sen. Jimmy Harris of New Orleans, now awaits the signature of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry to take effect, as reported by the LA Illuminator. A return to LSU roots amid financial strain UNO was originally part of the LSU System from its founding in 1958 until 2011, when it was transferred to the UL System. At the time, the move was welcomed by alumni and boosters who felt the university had been overshadowed by LSU. However, a prolonged budget crisis has since placed UNO in a precarious financial position, prompting this reversal. The university currently faces a $30 million shortfall and has already implemented a spending freeze, layoffs, and furloughs. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Experts Tested 17 Hearing Aids. Their #1 Pick Will Shock You Undo According to the LA Illuminator, the proposed state budget includes $20 million to settle UNO's outstanding debts and an additional $450,000 for a comprehensive academic and financial audit to inform the transition. Enrollment decline and shifting system dynamics UNO's fiscal challenges are closely tied to a significant decline in student enrollment. Prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the university enrolled approximately 17,000 students. That number plummeted to around 6,000 post-storm and has remained stagnant. As of the Fall 2024 semester, enrollment stood at just 6,488 students. In contrast, all institutions within the LSU System have reported enrollment growth in recent years, defying national trends of declining college attendance. This contrast reinforces the state's hope that aligning UNO with the LSU System could revitalize its appeal and performance. Oversight and transition steps outlined As detailed by the LA Illuminator, the legislation mandates a step-by-step transition. By August 1, UNO President Kathy Johnson must notify the Southern Association for Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the accrediting body, of the planned governance change. The LSU System Board of Supervisors is required to form a transition committee composed of legislators and stakeholders from the greater New Orleans area. This committee must operate under the state's open meetings law and submit its findings to the state Board of Regents and legislative education committees no later than April 1. Academic standing and athletic alignment The move will also shift the academic and athletic positioning of UNO. Within the LSU System, UNO would be the only undergraduate R2 research institution—classified as having high research activity—second only to LSU's flagship R1 campus. It would also be the only other LSU System school with an NCAA Division I athletics program. The legislation instructs both the UL and LSU boards to work cooperatively during the transition. Even before SACSCOC gives final approval, administrative and supervisory responsibilities are to be gradually transferred, ensuring UNO's budget is balanced in collaboration with the LSU board. As quoted by the LA Illuminator, Sen. Harris emphasized that 'this is about saving an institution that means a great deal to New Orleans' and steering it toward a sustainable and competitive future. Is your child ready for the careers of tomorrow? Enroll now and take advantage of our early bird offer! Spaces are limited.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
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. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 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. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Why this year's PGA Championship venue, Quail Hollow, is the Kardashians of golf courses
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It's the great Quail Hollow debate: Players rave about it when they come every year, but for the course architecture heads and the peripheral golf community, the glass is very much half empty on this week's PGA Championship venue. So why is the divide so stark? What is it about a major coming to Quail Hollow that elicits such a visceral reaction? The answer is a bit like explaining reality television's appeal. Advertisement 'I guess I would say Quail Hollow is like a Kardashian,' six-time PGA Tour winner Hunter Mahan said. 'It's very modern, beautiful and well-kept. But it lacks a soul or character.' Name another major championship venue that can be so sensibly compared to a family of meme-able celebrities who always seem to be the center of the pop culture news cycle. You cannot. Quail Hollow is a staple on the PGA Tour for a reason. Founded by Jimmy Harris in 1959 on pasture land inherited by his mother, Quail Hollow gradually established itself as a place of note in the professional golf community because of its internal efforts to become one. The expansive parkland layout was originally designed by golf course architect George Cobb, best known for building Augusta National's par-3 course. Arnold Palmer helped modify four holes in the late 1980s, and soon after, Jimmy's son, Johnny Harris — dubbed North Carolina's 'Ambassador of Golf' — took over as the president of Quail Hollow. That's when the real work began. Tom Fazio came in to complete a full redesign of the routing in 1997. By 2003, Quail Hollow was primed to begin hosting its annual PGA Tour event, originally called the Wachovia Championship, then the Wells Fargo, and now the Truist. Quail Hollow hosted its first major in 2017 — Justin Thomas won the PGA Championship — and a Presidents Cup in 2022. 'Arnold Palmer said to the founders, 'If you build a golf course and you put up enough money, the best players in the world would play down Independence Boulevard,'' Johnny Harris said. 'From the beginning, we always wanted to build a course that would attract the best players in the world.' That it did. Harris, an Augusta National member, has never been shy about his aspirations. Stepping onto the property, you're immediately met with a sense of grandeur. A stately white clubhouse. Towering pines. Twisting fairways and gigantic bunkers. The course's closing stretch, Nos. 16-18, was dubbed 'The Green Mile' by esteemed golf journalist and Charlotte native Ron Green Jr. and played at 488 shots over par during the 2017 PGA Championship. Advertisement The Southern-style grounds do emulate a certain course in northeast Georgia. 'Mr. Johnny Harris and the membership here have a vision to be the No. 1 course in the country behind only Augusta National,' Keith Wood, Quail Hollow's Director of Green and Grounds told the Winston-Salem Journal when he was poached from Sedgefield's staff in 2015. It tends to be a common observation among those who visit Quail Hollow for the first time. NBC's Johnson Wagner, a Charlotte resident and club member, used his Korn Ferry Tour credential to attend the Wachovia Championship the first year it was played. 'I immediately fell in love,' Johnson said. 'It was May in Charlotte, the flowers are blooming and the course is overseeded. I was like, oh my gosh, this place is like Augusta.' It's just you & the green. 223 yards. What's your club? ⛳️#PGAChamp — PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 12, 2025 Since its inception, Quail Hollow has been nipped and tucked to Harris and the membership's liking. There's a sense that the place is constantly evolving and attempting to transform into one of the country's premier major championship destinations. A man-made stream was added to the 18th hole for increased drama on the closing hole in 1996. Fazio shaped the 16th into a drivable par-4 in 2013. Three years later, the final pairing in the Wells Fargo tournament wasn't even in the clubhouse before the architecture team ripped apart the beginning stretch of the front nine. The greens have been redone multiple times, and not always to acclaim. In 2010, Phil Mickelson told the Charlotte Observer that the putting surfaces are some of the worst on the PGA Tour: 'Even though they're in immaculate shape, I would say that No. 18 would be the worst green we have on tour, except it's not even the worst green on the golf course. Twelve is.' Advertisement In true Quail Hollow fashion, those surfaces have since been remodeled. The changes to the actual holes at Quail Hollow have all occurred side-by-side to expansions to the land itself, making room for hospitality tents, roads and other logistical necessities. 'It seems like every design change we make is to make it a better venue for the public and for infrastructure, rather than for the golf course,' Wagner said. Despite the club's ambitions, neither Golf Digest or ranks the course among its top 100 in the United States. Yet, former PGA Tour pro and current practicing architect Davis Love III says it passes another test. 'Is it going to be exciting on TV? Oh yeah. It's going to be awesome.' Jordan Spieth reportedly called the venue 'Rory McIlroy Country Club' last week. That's because McIlroy can overpower the majority of Quail Hollow's holes by blasting it over the fairway bunkers with his driver. He's won here four times, including by five shots last year. Harris is already considering making some changes in an attempt to counteract the prowess of the career Grand Slam winner and a select group of other pros who can bomb it into oblivion. 'Last year, before Wells Fargo, we flipped the bunkers on No. 16, the first hole of the Green Mile, which is the hardest three holes in golf. We were sure nobody's gonna knock it over. Well, the first day of the tournament, Rory McIlroy flew it over the bunker, stood in the fairway, looked back at the camera and gave me a nod,' Harris said. The result of all this tinkering is a property that is extremely well-suited for a major championship-sized crowd. But does that mean Quail Hollow is fit to provide a major championship-caliber test? Last week, former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover mentioned Quail Hollow as he spoke of the admirable Philly Cricket Club, a golden-age A.W. Tillinghast design that the PGA Tour visited for the first time last week as a fill-in venue for the Truist. Advertisement '(Tillinghast) gives you so many choices. At Quail Hollow, we'll all be hitting it to pretty much the same place,' he said. The same sentiment was shared by several players about last year's PGA Championship venue, Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. A course becomes instantly less interesting when players can hit it anywhere and still find success. There's a belief among architecture experts that Quail Hollow rewards aggressive play because the design is simply not demanding enough to place a premium on extreme accuracy. Plus, several inches of rainfall early this week in Charlotte might create softer-than-ideal conditions for what Harris and his membership envisioned. Scoring at Quail Hollow ranges from a borderline birdie fest to a stern, but fair 72 holes. McIlroy won the Wells Fargo at 17 under last year. Thomas won the 2017 PGA at 8 under. Kerry Haigh and the PGA of America's championship team will set up the golf course with thick rough and strategic pins in hopes of making it play more like a major than a PGA Tour event. 'Quail Hollow is a good modern test, but it lacks the substance to be a great test,' said Andy Johnson of The Fried Egg, a popular independent golf media company specializing in architecture coverage. 'Venues such as Augusta National demand players to not only be in the fairway but certain places in the fairway to take advantage of great scoring opportunities. At Quail Hollow, simply finding the fairway is the goal.' That's part of the reason why the pros seem to love it so much. It's all right there in front of you. There's ample data to be extracted from past tournaments. The holes are indeed difficult. But it's familiar, and never cruel. 'The golf course is very challenging, but it's not tricked up,' said Webb Simpson, a PGA Tour player and Quail Hollow member. 'Guys love being challenged in the right way. Not tricked up, but real tough golf holes and Quail has a great variety of them.' It doesn't hurt that the course is known for supreme treatment of pros and caddies, from dry cleaning delivered at valet parking to five-star dining in the clubhouse. The players rave about Charlotte as a hub for professional golf fans, and many of them have close personal relationships with Harris, who is ever present during tournament weeks. The crowds will show out this week. Massive build-outs give spectators multiple options for viewing the closing stretch should the Green Mile deliver a finish anything like what we saw at last month's Masters. 'Major championships go to places that have room for major championships,' Love said. As an annual stop on the PGA Tour, Quail Hollow is top tier. As a big stage for a big golf tournament, it's first-rate. As a major test? It leaves many wanting more. 'If we pick the top 20 architecturally significant places to host a PGA Championship, well yeah, maybe Quail Hollow doesn't make that top 20,' Love said. 'But if you pick the top 20 places to host a big tournament, it's in the top 5.' (Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; top photo of Rory McIlroy: Andrew Redington / Getty Images)
