A controversial proposal to merge the historically black Southern University at New Orleans with the nearby University of New Orleans died on Wednesday when the bill’s author and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal determined that they lacked the votes to get it approved.
The speaker of the State House of Representatives, Rep. Jim Tucker, a Republican, pulled the bill late Wednesday after meeting with members of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus, who strongly opposed a merger. “The higher-education community in the New Orleans area suffered a blow today,” Mr. Tucker, who is also a Republican, told House members in announcing his decision to yank the bill. “I believe the combined institutions would have been stronger than their parts.”
It was unclear late Wednesday whether a companion bill in the Senate would move forward. The merger would need approval by two-thirds of both chambers to proceed.
Both neighboring universities were flooded in 2005 when levees were breached in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They have struggled for years to regain their pre-Katrina enrollments and to boost dismal graduation rates.
Mr. Tucker said he plans to introduce a new bill that would move the University of New Orleans from the Louisiana State University system into the University of Louisiana system, where he thinks the university will have a better shot at improving its performance. The legislation will also call for greater cooperation among Southern University at New Orleans, the University of New Orleans, and Delgado Community College.
In March, a national higher-education consultant recommended that the three institutions streamline their operations, offering two options that fell short of a complete merger.
Southern University’s chancellor, Victor Ukpolo, said he was elated that the merger bill was withdrawn. “I’m pleased that the members of the House looked at the facts regarding the aftermath of Katrina and decided not to issue a death sentence to an institution that has progressed the way we have after such devastation,” he said in an interview after the vote.
Mr. Ukpolo had lobbied aggressively to preserve the university’s status as a separate, historically black university that serves many working-class students. He has stressed the positive initial findings of an accreditation team, the extensive campus rebuilding, and the university’s new admissions standards.
Governor Jindal, who proposed the merger and has pushed for its approval, issued a statement Wednesday evening expressing disappointment. “We continue to believe the status quo for students in New Orleans is unacceptable, and we’re not going to give up on our fight to improve educational opportunities,” the governor said. “We make no apologies for pushing big, ambitious and bold ideas to improve our state.”
The merger legislation, House Bill 537, called for merging Southern University with the University at New Orleans in a new entity—the University of Louisiana at New Orleans—that would be part of the University of Louisiana system, starting in 2013. It would have included two colleges with different admissions standards, academic focuses, and course offerings.
One of the two colleges would have been research-oriented, with graduate programs in science, engineering, and technology, as well as other programs deemed critical to the needs of the region. The other would have focused on undergraduate courses. The colleges would have shared admissions, financial-aid, and other administrative-staff offices.
The legislation also would have established on the campus of the new university a branch of Delgado Community College, where students could take remedial and general-education courses.
Opponents, including many students and faculty members at Southern University, voiced their concerns in rallies and in the courts. In April, a state judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger. Southern University students also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Challenges remain for the two institutions, which have vowed to streamline their operations and cooperate in course offerings.
The official graduation rate for Southern University, based on how many first-time, full-time freshmen complete a bachelor’s degree within six years, is under 8 percent, while that for the University of New Orleans is about 21 percent. But Southern’s chancellor, Mr. Ukpolo, says the formula the federal government uses to calculate graduation rates hurts institutions like his, which attract many older, lower-income, and working people who attend part time, and many students who transfer from two-year institutions and thus are not included.
Only 14 of the 442 students who graduated this month from Southern University were full-time students who started at the institution and graduated within six years; thus, most of Southern’s graduates didn’t count toward its official graduation rate.
Officials at the University of New Orleans also expressed relief at the decision to preserve the university as a separate institution.
“One of the lessons of this process has been that there needs to be greater cooperation among UNO, SUNO and Delgado,” the university’s acting chancellor, Joe M. King, said in a written statement. “We are looking forward to strengthening these relationships and doing our part to ensure success for all college students in the New Orleans area.”
