BATON ROUGE, La. — Southern University is proposing merging eight academic colleges and schools into five as the university begins a re-organization process.
The proposed plan would consolidate engineering with architecture, agriculture with the natural sciences and business with public policy, among other changes. It also would set the table for upcoming faculty and academic program cutbacks.
The Advocate reports (https://bit.ly/tkT1G2) the plan was distributed to faculty on Thursday with a request that input be received by noon Friday. Faculty members complained they were only given a day and a half to study it and asked for an extension until Wednesday.
It was not immediately known whether the extension was granted.
The Faculty Senate also discussed a potential vote of “no confidence” in Chancellor James Llorens and whether to start a legal defense fund to fight a recent declaration of a financial emergency, called exigency.
Southern University is proposing merging eight academic colleges and schools into five as the university begins a reorganization process.
Exigency, generally considered a serious blemish to a university, gives the Southern administration more leeway in laying off faculty and axing academic programs.
