Jindal to ask to merge SUNO, UNO

[BankerCajun]

_ I like it, but for reasons I won't go into here. I know one faculty member who thinks UNO will stretch the ULS budget; I am confident Bobby wants UNO's budget to follow them.

SUNO needs to be mergered because it's just a poor school. We need to move Tech to Shreveport, and Northwestern to Alec. That won't ever happen, but then every major city would have an established college, and LSU-S and LSU-A could be mergered.

BTW I printed the whole article: http://ultoday.com/node/2739 _

Move Northwestern to Shreveport, move La Tech to Monroe.. Northwestern in Natchitoches make a 2 year college and Tech in Ruston a 2 year colege... Rename ULM to La Tech... Integrate LSU-S into Northwestern.. This would leave 2, 4 year colleges in the north... Eunice does not need a college, students there could go to either UL, McNeese, or LSU... Nichols could become a 2 year college with students finishing at UNO, UL, or LSU. Southern and Grambling both could be consolidated with other 4 year colleges.. Southern with LSU and Grambling with either Northwestern in Shreveport or La Tech in Monroe..

Just for fun...

[CajunFun]

_ SUNO is in the Southern system, not LSU and not ULS.

Their graduation rate is an embarrassment and merger makes so much sense that it won't happen. _

If Bobby's moving on it, you can bet he's already counted his ducks.

Remember a couple of months ago, the Southern System wanted UNO? And then there was that surprising interview with ousted UNO President Ryan in the BR Business Report http://businessreport.com/news/2010/...k-future-edn1/

I actually thought about doing a poll with the UNO faculty asking them where they'd rather be:
1) Stay in LSU System.
2) Go to the Southern System
3) Go to the UL System

It would, of course, be a no-brainer. I think that the move will be good for UL, good for UNO, and good for Louisiana.

In the short run, there will be one drawback that I don't think very many people in the state see, and which I'm not mentioning here because I don't want to motivate any potential opponents. If you want to know, ask me when you see me.

But it will be better for everyone in the long run.

[ULBaby!]

Good idea except putting the merged school under UL system - this will be a drain on the UL system and clear both the LSU system of a school it would rather not have to deal with AND give us a terribly performing Southern system school that system is happy to get rid of. The part that I dislike most is that it is a "clearing of the deck" of our beloved flagship, enabling that system to focus on the one campus (read resources, $$, etc), and relegating all the other "also rans" into the UL system to fight for the scraps. If LSU and Bobby want it, you can bet its bad for us.

[NOCajun]

From what I'm hearing now, the students at UNO don't want a merger and the SUNO students DEFINITELY DON'T want it, either.

[AstroCajun]

_ From what I'm hearing now, the students at UNO don't want a merger and the SUNO students DEFINITELY DON'T want it, either. _

Do you really think the decision is going to come down to what the students of either school wants?

[mr. cajun]

Jindal has no backbone. Why just go after UNO and SUNO and not go after the other schools in the state? The answer is easy - POLITICS. It is an easy sell to just go after UNO and SUNO.

And can somebody tell me exactly how much money this propsed merger will save??? I will give you a hint - PEANUTS ... UNO and SUNO are the two smallest budgets in the State as it is and have been kicked in the teeth by the State for the last 5 years...

On top of that SUNO gets federal money because it is a HBCU AND both schools have millions of dollars in open cases with FEMA. You think that FEMA will pay once one school ceases to exist? LOL

This is just Bobby playing politics.

Hot boudin
Cold couscous
Come on Bobby
PIYUSH
PIYUSH
PIYUSH !!!!!

[wcd35]

_ Jindal has no backbone. Why just go after UNO and SUNO and not go after the other schools in the state? The answer is easy - POLITICS. It is an easy sell to just go after UNO and SUNO.

And can somebody tell me exactly how much money this propsed merger will save??? I will give you a hint - PEANUTS ... UNO and SUNO are the two smallest budgets in the State as it is and have been kicked in the teeth by the State for the last 5 years...

On top of that SUNO gets federal money because it is a HBCU AND both schools have millions of dollars in open cases with FEMA. You think that FEMA will pay once one school ceases to exist? LOL

So SUNO is not one of the worst performers in the state?

ooookeeeey

He's not going to recommend closing 5 schools down in one announcement. This is going to go school by school if possible.

[mr. cajun]

First of all I should have said that I am FOR the merging of some schools.

"So SUNO is not one of the worst performers in the state?"

I never said they weren't. I just said that merging UNO and SUNO will not save the state much money. In fact may cost the state money over the next 5 to 10 years.

Jindal, doing this in the 11th hour, just reeks of politics. Jindal is a numbers guy - so why did he mention NO numbers about the actual savings this will bring?

[NOCajun]

_ Do you really think the decision is going to come down to what the students of either school wants? _

Not my point. I was just "reporting" what I heard on the news today. I also heard a couple of local State representatives complaining that merging the 2 schools would cause SUNO to lose its "identity" as an "Historically Black College". I notice, though, that they didn't say ANYTHING about whether or not the merger would do anything to improve the educational opportunities for their students.

[Cajunrunner]

_ If Bobby's moving on it, you can bet he's already counted his ducks. _

Dang. Fun and I actually agree on something.

But he is 100% correct. Jindal did all his homework, internal polling, vote tallies, etc. before making this announcement.

Besides, the fact that many in Baton Rouge felt SUNO needed to be merged or shut down completely was one of the worst kept secrets. Problem is, no one wanted to publicly walk that plank.

State Rep. John Schroder from Covington questioned the administrators of SUNO at a public hearing last year, asking why their graduation rate was so low, asking if they could justify the reason for the state taxpayers to continue funding their university. It would be an understatement to say his questions were not well received within that arena.

But having the Governor step out with this lends more power than some state representative from the Northshore. Due to the way LA's state government is set up, the Governor has almost unchecked power. As a result, if he really wants this done, I see no reason why it can't be unless Gov. Jindal is the one who backs down.