NEW ORLEANS – Legislation moving the University of New Orleans from the Louisiana State University system to the University of Louisiana System was signed Tuesday by Gov. Bobby Jindal, who said it will give the 52-year-old UNO much needed autonomy from the system that is home to the state’s flagship university in Baton Rouge.
“I think UNO is poised to thrive in a system of great research universities like UNO, where there is not one flagship school,” Jindal said during a signing ceremony on the UNO campus. He said the LSU system is not designed to give UNO the foundation it needs. And he said the UL system, home to eight universities in different parts of the state, will give the support and flexibility to thrive.
“Look at how UL-Lafayette and Louisiana Tech are allowed to expand their research programs, are allowed to grow, are allowed to keep resources on their campuses. I think UNO is going to do extremely well,” Jindal said.
Legislators approved the measure in the recently ended legislative session, saying there has long been a feeling among many on the New Orleans campus that UNO has been in the shadow of LSU and has often felt neglected by the system’s leadership. The switch needs the approval of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a step which officials expect will come at a SACS board meeting in December.
Sentiment for a transfer is nothing new at UNO. The signing took place in an alumni center named for UNO’s founding chancellor, Homer Hitt. Acting Chancellor Joe King wryly noted that Jindal was sitting at a desk where Hitt, who led the university for 22 years, first called for UNO to be removed from the LSU system.
But calls for a transfer gained momentum in recent years of on-again-off-again tumult that included heavy damage from Hurricane Katrina and the ouster of a chancellor who was critical of his bosses at LSU.
Katrina shut the campus down for a semester and preceded a drop in enrollment. About 11,200 now, it was 17,000 before the storm.
