Legislators talk of SUNO/UNO merger

23rd February 2015 · 0 Comments

Just four years after Louisiana lawmakers mulled over a bill proposing to merge historically Black Southern University at New Orleans with predominantly white University of New Orleans, the state legislature is gearing up for possibly another battle over the controversial proposal to merge the two New Orleans institutions.

In 2011, it was state Sen. Conrad Appel (R-Metairie), who proposed the merger.

The lawmaker considering a similar bill during the impending legislative session is state Rep. Patrick Connick.

“People need to look at it seriously and see if we can consolidate resources and services and save some money,” Connick told The Advocate last week. “It doesn’t make sense to have two separate institutions doing the same thing. Let’s combine them and work together. It’s something that we need to get done in order to survive as a state and to keep higher ed on a high level.”

While the current budgetary crisis is again identified as the culprit, some attribute the state’s financial woes to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s refusal to accept federal dollars and a series of tax incentives Just four years after Louisiana lawmakers mulled over a bill proposing to merge historically Black Southern University at New Orleans with predominantly white University of New Orleans, the state legislature is gearing up for possibly another battle over the controversial proposal to merge the two New Orleans institutions.

In 2011, it was state Sen. Conrad Appel (R-Metairie), who proposed the merger.

The lawmaker considering a similar bill during the impending legislative session is state Rep. Patrick Connick.

Regardless of the reasons for the latest merger talk, both SUNO and UNO have struggled in recent years with SUNO’s enrollment taking another major hit with the implementation of higher admission standards last fall.

UNO’s enrollment has steadily declined over the past decade.

In the nearly 10 years since being inundated with toxic floodwaters, SUNO has had to fight tooth and nail with state government leaders to gain access to tens of millions of dollars earmarked for the institution’s recovery efforts, prompting some in New Orleans to suggest that the powers that be in Baton Rouge have tried to do everything in their power to ensure that SUNO falters in the wake of the storm.

While several new projects at SUNO have been completed, SUNO’s campus remains a major work in progress.

“That’s by design,” Tamara Alexander, a SUNO supporter, told The Louisiana Weekly last week. “it may be that Gov. Bobby Jindal has other plans for that FEMA money or somebody simply wants SUNO to cease to exist. Either way, it’s clear that this is part of some bigger plan to do away with SUNO and its legacy.

New Orleans resident Imani Green echoed those remarks, adding, “SUNO has a history of social and political activism that somebody somewhere obviously sees as a threat to maintaining the status quo.”

Green added that the proposed bill may also be motivated in part by the white business sector’s interest in the lakefront real estate SUNO sits atop and how that land might be used to boost tourism dollars.

Not far from SUNO, the former site of the former Black-owned Bally’s Casino was recently purchased by Tipitina’s after sitting idle since Hurricane Katrina.

Although no evidence has been found to date supporting that theory, some have wondered what other properties the white business community might seek to acquire to enhance New Orleans’ dining and entertainment offerings.

State Sen. Conrad Appel, who heads the Senate Education Committee, told The Advocate that any talk of school closures or mergers is premature.

“We are a very long way from getting to a position where we need to be talking about closures or anything else,” he said, insisting that lawmakers first need to determine how much money can be generated from other sources — like tuition hikes for some programs or new student fees — to get cash flowing into the schools.

State Rep. Austin Badon said last week that if Connick goes through with his bill to merge SUNO and UNO, Badon might consider penning a bill to bring the tolls back to the Crescent City Connection.

“That’s something that (Connick) was very passionate about, so we might have to revisit that idea,” Badon told a local news station.

SUNO Chancellor Dr. Victor Ukpolo told The Advocate Thursday that the city’s only public Black university may be forced to close if it’s stripped of half of the $8 million in funding it receives from the state. Such a cut would eliminate nearly a quarter of SUNO’s $18 million budget, he said.

“Our budget has been cut almost 60 percent already within the last six years, and we’ve been doing what we can to stay afloat,” Ukpolo said. “But with this situation, I don’t see how we can stay afloat.”’

UNO President Peter Fos, who took over in 2012, told The Advocate that he’s had “no talk of any merger with anybody” and noted that the idea of a merger is a sensitive subject.

“I’ve had people ask me if there’s a consolidation plan, and there isn’t,” he told The Advocate. “One of the things that people don’t understand is that I’m not sure the cost of educating a student would change.”

Fox added that he doesn’t “really see the cost savings” in merging the universities.

“Sometimes you’re trying to take an apple and merge it with an orange, and you don’t get anything that’s good,” he said.

This article originally published in the February 23, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.