Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry says the state's colleges and universities will join a six-state college accreditor that he says will "remove ideological indoctrination" from the state's institutions of higher learning.
In a press release, Landry says Louisiana will become a member of the Commission for Public Higher Education, joining Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and the Texas A&M University System as charter members. However, that move is not immediate. Landry signed an executive order creating a task force to study the move. That task force is comprised of the state's higher education leaders, state legislators, and Landry appointees.
“This task force will ensure Louisiana’s public universities move away from DEI-driven mandates and toward a system rooted in merit-based achievement,” Landry said in a statement.
Some analysts warn that this move will politicize Louisiana's higher education systems. Patrice Lindo, a career coach, consultant, and the CEO at Career Nomad, says Landry's move could cost the state's universities students, professors, and money.
"This move puts universities at risk of being labeled as politically fringe," Lindo said. "When a university is forced with a politically-created accreditor, it rebrands--intentionally or not--as a partisan institution."
According to Lindo, Louisiana's move to an alternative accreditation system could cost the state's universities research funds and their institutional credibility. Lindo says it could also cost students their financial aid and other funding as well as make the credits they acquire at a Louisiana school useless towards transferring to or enrolling in postgraduate programs at out-of-state universities. That, Lindo says, could lead to students and professors abandoning those schools for others.
"If a university is forced to rebrand by aligning with this political affiliation, that impacts the alumni, potential donors, faculty, and employee perception. Most importantly, from a networking perspective, accreditation impacts academic transferability," Lindo said. "It could spook not only donors and funders but also strategic partners who don't even want to gamble with the institutional credibility."
One leader in Louisiana higher education says that may not be the case. Dr. Jim Henderson, the president of Louisiana Tech University and the former president of the University of Louisiana System, says questioning the status quo isn't a bad thing.
"It's easy, especially in today's hypersensitive political realm, to get caught up in the rhetoric, but look at the substance," Dr. Henderson said. "If we have the right people at the table, and I really believe we have some great voices at the table, I think we're going to be just fine, and we could strengthen higher education as a result."
According to Dr. Henderson, the state of Louisiana has evaluated and reevaluated its accreditation situation several times over the last 25 years. He says the switch, if it happens, won't occur overnight. That's because Governor Landry's task force has to study the issue and because the United States Department of Education must approve the new organization. In all, that process, Dr. Henderson says, could take up to two years.
Dr. Henderson cautions Louisianians not to fall for the political hype and to weigh this matter based on the issues at hand.
"There's always the fear of politics inserting themselves into education," Dr. Henderson said. "Anytime you have the conversation around quality and around student outcomes, I think it can be healthy. Even if it sometimes can get caught up in political rhetoric, the essence of it can always be a good thing."