The College of New Orleans ought to undertake LSU branding and grow to be LSU New Orleans when it transfers to the LSU system, interim LSU President Matt Lee instructed the Board of Regents Tuesday.
Lee stated the change is critical to make the switch profitable. UNO was often known as LSU New Orleans from its founding in 1958, when it was thought of a department of the Baton Rouge primary campus, till its change to the College of New Orleans in 1974.
“I believe for this to actually work, it’s going to must be LSU New Orleans since you’re marrying two well-known manufacturers,” Lee stated, referring to LSU and the town of New Orleans.
UNO was beforehand a part of the LSU System till it was moved into the College of Louisiana System 14 years in the past, with proponents of the transfer saying it was essential for the New Orleans faculty to get out of the shadow of the a lot bigger Baton Rouge campus.
State lawmakers earlier this yr authorised transferring the college again to the LSU System in response to UNO’s long-running enrollment decline, which has brought on a fiscal disaster for the college. UNO is the one public analysis college in New Orleans and is taken into account important for the area.
A committee to supervise the transition will maintain its first assembly early subsequent month, LSU Board Chairman Scott Ballard stated.
UNO’s enrollment decline spans twenty years. The college had a scholar physique of round 17,000 earlier than Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with a direct drop to round 6,000 after the storm.
For a number of years earlier than President Kathy Johnson took over the college in 2023, college directors didn’t align spending with falling enrollment. The college confronted a $30 million finances shortfall final fiscal yr and applied layoffs, employees furloughs and a spending freeze in an try and make ends meet.
Lawmakers and college leaders hope the switch could have a constructive influence on scholar numbers. Regardless of the nationwide development of falling enrollment, each faculty within the LSU System has reported rising, typically record-breaking enrollment over the previous a number of years.
