What will it take to keep the University of New Orleans open? According to one local lawmaker, moving UNO from the University of Louisiana system back to the L-S-U system would be a good start.
According to Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry, moving UNO to the LSU System would simplify getting funds into the university.
Henry told WWL's Tommy Tucker that under the University of Louisiana System, money that U-N-O receives ultimately would come out of the other UL schools' budgets.
"LSU is one unit: they are individual schools, but they operate collectively," Henry said. "I just feel that we've got to do something to kickstart UNO differently than what's been done in the past."
Henry says boosting the UNO's enrollment would help kickstart the university. According to Henry, moving UNO back into the LSU System, where it resided from its founding in 1956 until its move to the UL System in 2011, would assist the university in this mission.
"We've got to move (past) the idea of UNO begin just a local school for local kids," Henry said. "We've got to move that past and really be aggressive in attracting out-of-state students who want to go to school in New Orleans.
"With the LSU name, with their marketing, with the number of students applying for Baton Rouge, maybe we can syphon some of those kids off," Henry continued. "A kid that's from Kansas that wants to go to LSU-Baton Rouge but just doesn't have the GPA to do it, maybe they can go to (UNO) for a year or two and then transfer to Baton Rouge to where we're increasing our student count. That's the goal."
Henry says he and and House Speaker Phillip Devillier have launched a study to find out how moving UNO to the LSU system would help or hurt the school.
"Doesn't mean we're definitely going to do it, but the first step is to do a study," Henry said. "After the study is completed, we'll have to file some legislation in Baton Rouge."