logo
University of New Orleans transfer to LSU System expected to cost $23 million this year

University of New Orleans transfer to LSU System expected to cost $23 million this year

Yahoo28-05-2025
The University of New Orleans sign sits in front of the University Center on Dec. 15, 2022. (Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator)
Louisiana lawmakers are advancing legislation to transfer the University of New Orleans from the University of Louisiana System to the LSU System at a cost of about $23 million, Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said.
Senate Bill 202 by Sen. Jimmy Harris, D-New Orleans, unanimously passed the Senate Tuesday. It will next be discussed in a House committee and must also receive approval from the House of Representatives and Gov. Jeff Landry before it takes effect.
The bill would reverse the action legislators took 14 years ago to move UNO to the University of Louisiana System from the LSU System, which it had been a part of since the university was founded in 1958.
The implementation of Harris' legislation is subject to funding. LSU estimates the transfer will cost $41 million in the first year and another $40.4 million over the next four years.
'That's more of a pie-in-the-sky type thing,' Harris said of LSU's estimate.
Lawmakers don't plan to spend that much this year, Henry said in an interview after the vote. Instead, he expects to spend $20 million to wipe out debt to vendors and another $3 million for must-do deferred maintenance costs. Those deferred maintenance dollars will likely come from existing funds for campus construction projects, Henry said.
The university's possible return to LSU's control is in response to UNO's acute budget crisis. The school faces a $30 million shortfall and has implemented a spending freeze, layoffs and staff furloughs in an attempt to make ends meet.
UNO administrators have kept open the possibility of further layoffs and furloughs. Its budget crisis is largely tied to enrollment. The school had a student body of around 17,000 before Hurricane Katrina, with an immediate drop to around 6,000 after the storm. For the fall 2024 semester, its total enrollment was 6,488.
Unlike UNO, every school in the LSU System has reported enrollment increases over the past few years, in contrast to nationwide trends of declining student numbers on college campuses.
The Louisiana Board of Regents, which oversees all higher education in the state, has already approved the transfer.
At the time of the system switch in 2011, UNO alumni and boosters applauded the plan, as many felt the university was overshadowed in the LSU System.
UNO would be the only institution in the LSU System classified as an R2 university, meaning it has high levels of research activity, second only to LSU's main campus, which is a R1 school with the highest research activity rating.
In the University of Louisiana System, there are two other schools with research-level rankings: the University of Louisiana Lafayette, an R1, and Louisiana Tech, an R2.
UNO would also be the only other school in the LSU System with an NCAA Division I athletics program.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Hong Kong judge rules in favor of transgender bathroom access
Hong Kong judge rules in favor of transgender bathroom access

Los Angeles Times

time36 minutes ago

  • Los Angeles Times

Hong Kong judge rules in favor of transgender bathroom access

HONG KONG — A Hong Kong judge on Wednesday ruled to strike down regulations criminalizing the use of bathrooms designated for the opposite sex, ruling in favor of transgender individuals' rights to access public toilets matching their identity. Judge Russell Coleman approved the judicial review of K, who was born a woman and identifies as a man, saying the regulations contravene an article of the city's mini-constitution that stipulates all residents should be equal before the law. But he suspended the declaration to strike down the regulations for a year to allow the government 'to consider whether it wishes to implement a way to deal with the contravention.' He said in the judgment that the regulations and 'drawing the line of a person's biological sex at birth create a disproportionate and unnecessary intrusion into the privacy and equality rights.' The ruling marks another step forward in recognizing the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the Chinese financial hub. In recent years, the government has revised policies following activists' wins in legal challenges. Currently, only children under 5 years old accompanied by an opposite sex adult can enter a public washroom designated for the opposite sex. Those violating the rule face a fine of up to 2,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $255). K launched a legal challenge in 2022, seeking to expand the exemption to pre-operative transgender people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and have a medical need to undergo the process of living in their identified gender. He argued that his constitutional rights were infringed by the prohibition against him using public toilets allocated for men, the court heard. The Environment and Ecology Bureau said in an emailed statement that the government will carefully study the judgment and consult the Department of Justice on the appropriate follow-up action. Quarks, a group serving transgender youth in Hong Kong, welcomed the ruling, urging officials to take immediate action to rectify what it called long-standing discrimination in the system. 'The ruling is not just an affirmation of transgender rights legally but also a big step forward for Hong Kong's overall human rights development,' it said on Instagram. In 2023, Hong Kong's top court ruled that full sex reassignment surgery should not be a prerequisite for transgender people to have their gender changed on their official identity cards. The next year, the government revised its policy to allow people who have not completed full gender-affirmation surgery to change their genders on ID cards as long as they fulfill certain conditions. The conditions include the removal of breasts for transgender men, the removal of the penis and testes for transgender women, and having undergone continuous hormonal treatment for at least two years before applying. Applicants also have to continue their hormonal treatment and submit blood test reports for random checks upon the government's request. In April, activist Henry Tse, who won the legal battle in 2023 and received his new ID card reflecting his gender change last year, lodged a fresh legal challenge over the new requirements. Leung writes for the Associated Press.

She's fought for clean water for years and fears proposed Ontario permit changes will hurt First Nations
She's fought for clean water for years and fears proposed Ontario permit changes will hurt First Nations

Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Yahoo

She's fought for clean water for years and fears proposed Ontario permit changes will hurt First Nations

Makasa Looking Horse Henry remembers the moment she learned some people in her community had never tasted clean tap water. "A lot of people have to rely on buying water, not having any hooked-up water, piped-in water and running water in their households," she said. "This is a huge stressor on Indigenous women's mental health and Indigenous families' mental health." For the past eight years, Henry has fought for water sovereignty in a place that's been her home her entire life, Six Nations of the Grand River, which is near Brantford and is home to people from all six Haudenosaunee nations. Now, Henry says, a proposed regulation from the Ontario government could roll back years of advocacy and sideline voices of Indigenous communities like hers. "It's honestly really, really disappointing and disheartening," she said. It feels as if the proposal is designed to "keep Indigenous Peoples out of the decision-making from water extraction, and governing our own waters and governing our own lands," Henry added. The proposed regulation Under the province's current regulations, companies that want to extract groundwater must apply for a permit to take water, triggering environmental assessments, public consultation, a review of the purpose for taking water and a duty to consult Indigenous communities. Businesses that might want to take groundwater include agriculture, gravel mining and water-bottling plants. The proposed regulation would allow those permits to be transferred from one company to another without reapplying, so long as the intended use for the water and amount taken stays the same or declines. That means a business could be sold to a new owner who could inherit the water rights with minimal additional review. In an emailed statement from a Ministry of the Environment spokesperson, the province said this streamlines the permit approval process, potentially cutting months off the current approval wait time. The ministry said it would also continue to review all applicants in the streamlined process to ensure requirements are met. But according to critics, such changes to the process would bypass meaningful environmental checks. What's at stake Arlene Slocombe, executive director of Wellington Water Watchers, shares Henry's concerns. "The [Premier Doug] Ford government wants to make water-taking permits transferrable, meaning no input, no consent and no accountability if corporate ownership changes hands," she said in a phone interview with CBC News. "This move to change the water-taking permit process is essentially a water-grabbing tactic that would make water-taking permits functionally and potentially eternal once approved." Slocombe warns the regulation could lead to unchecked withdrawals from groundwater systems with unknown limits. "It's essentially like writing checks on a bank account that you don't know the balance of, and at some point, you run out," she said. "Nobody's really tallying exactly when that 'zero' mark happens." Slocombe said while most municipal wells supplying houses and businesses eventually return water to the watershed, facilities like bottling plants could permanently remove it by shipping it beyond the local ecosystem. Another major concern is the removal of the 30-day public comment period that currently accompanies water-taking applications. Slocombe said that when BlueTriton applied for its permit to run its Aberfoyle water-bottling operation, more than 32,000 people submitted feedback. Under the new rules, a permit transfer would not require any public input. Nor would it require consultation with Indigenous groups. "Again, something else that they're trying to push and take our voices out of the entire conversation," said Henry. "We're not going anywhere and they need to respect us as sovereign nations." The economics of water-taking Roy Brouwer, executive director of the University of Waterloo's Water Institute and an economics professor, said the province is undervaluing the true cost of its water. He said that when he moved to Waterloo region a decade or so ago, the cost was under $5 for 1,000 cubic metres of water (one million litres). Since then, the cost has increased, but not in a way that reflects limited supply or environmental impact. "They just added $500 like a round number, $500 on the permit," he said. "It has all the appearances of an administrative fee. And it doesn't necessarily reflect the scarcity costs of the resource now and into the future, benefiting multiple users," said Brouwer. He believes the transfer system, as proposed, ignores the fact that water is limited. Brouwer said he's also concerned about the environmental impact. "Over time … what you initially identified as a maybe limited or moderate ecological risk is perhaps a bigger risk because you actually do the pumping and you can actually observe what is happening to the natural environment." The fight in Aberfoyle Henry was a vocal critic of the former Nestlé bottling plant in Aberfoyle, later sold to BlueTriton and now owned by Ice River Springs. Despite it being part of the application process, indigenous consultation was minimal. "Nobody knew in my community that water extraction … was happening. And with the lack of consultation, not even the governments knew that that was happening either," she said. "Our people had no idea." Over the years, she's held groundwater awareness rallies — sometimes by herself — and delivered cease-and-desist letters on behalf of her band council. She said she secured those by "going to meetings at our long house and letting our clan mothers, faith keepers and chiefs know what was happening. And so they said deliver the cease-and-desist to them. And so that's what I did." Ice River Springs, an Ontario-based bottling company and the newest owner of the Aberfoyle water-bottling facility, has yet to apply for its water-taking permit. In an emailed statement to CBC News, executive vice-president and co-owner Sandy Gott said the company "supports initiatives that maintain environmental protection" and it would do its work "with respect for the communities in which [they] operate." Concerns about being cut out The public comment period for Ontario's proposed water permit regulation runs until Aug. 1. After that, it moves to a review and decision stage. There is no fixed timeline for when a final decision will be made. Henry said she's concerned about being cut out of the process entirely. "Right now, they're trying to take every single thing that they can and they're trying to take more water," she said. "And so we're just trying to fight with everything we have to protect our waters and our lands. They go hand in hand."

Noem takes heat on Texas amid doubts over FEMA flood response
Noem takes heat on Texas amid doubts over FEMA flood response

Yahoo

time3 days ago

  • Yahoo

Noem takes heat on Texas amid doubts over FEMA flood response

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is under fire amid reports of a botched disaster response effort in Texas, one that the editorial board of the state's biggest newspaper is comparing to the debacle that followed Hurricane Katrina. 'Heck of a job, Secretary Noem,' the Houston Chronicle's editorial board wrote Monday, riffing on former President George W. Bush's notorious praise of then-Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Michael Brown as New Orleans flooded. The editors joined Democratic members of Congress — including Sens. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Ed Markey (Mass.), as well as Texas Reps. Greg Casar and Jasmine Crockett — in calling for investigations into Noem's handling of FEMA, an agency both she and President Trump have previously talked about closing, amid reports of poor response times and local volunteers filling in for federal responders. On Tuesday, Markey called for Noem's resignation, describing her handling of the floods as 'an absolute disgrace.' In a video posted to the social platform X, Murphy said FEMA had begun to look like 'a PR agency for the secretary of Homeland Security, not an actual disaster response agency.' Rafael Lemaitre, FEMA director of public affairs under former President Obama, said Trump and Noem's vision for FEMA — one where it exists mostly to back up state responses — is largely already reality. The Trump administration, he said, 'is in denial about the role of FEMA, the improvements that FEMA has made since Hurricane Katrina — not only in its ability to respond better to disasters but to help communities prepare for them in an era of increased severity and frequency in disasters.' Since the reforms after hurricanes Rita and Katrina, FEMA has functioned as a support service for local officials, who must request its aid and run the disaster response themselves. 'If there ever was a federal agency built not to tell states how to handle things but to support them when needed, it's FEMA, which only kicks in when a state's capacity is exceeded, whether in response, recovery, mitigation, or preparedness,' Lemaitre said. 'Governors, red or blue, are in charge. They ask for what they need, and we provide it.' He argued that the administration is undoing the post-Katrina reforms, starting with its new head, David Richardson, who is under fire for his failure to make any public statements or appearances for more than a week after the floods. Richardson, who runs FEMA part-time, is the first agency head since Brown without any background in disaster response. Under the post-Katrina law requiring FEMA heads to have at least five years of disaster management experience, he would be disqualified — but as an acting head, he's exempt. On Wednesday, at the inaugural Hill Nation Summit in Washington, Noem told NewsNation's Blake Burman that Trump's 'vision for FEMA is that we would empower states to be able to respond to their constituents much more than what FEMA has done in the past.' 'In Texas,' she told Burman, the agency 'cut through the bureaucratic red tape and the rules and regulations that were left over from the Biden administration so that we immediately predeployed millions of dollars to Texas so that they could run their response.' Over the weekend, Noem attacked the press reports of a poor response in Texas, insisting on 'Fox and Friends' that the reporting of FEMA delays are 'fake news' and 'absolute trash.' She told NBC News that 'it's discouraging that during this time, when we have such a loss of life, and so many people's lives have turned upside down, that people are playing politics with this, because the response time was immediate.' Pressed on reports of low response rates at FEMA hotlines, Noem said she didn't believe the numbers and challenged anonymous sources to come forward. In a statement to The Hill, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin decried reporting that the agency had been slow to deploy teams as 'lies' and 'an unapparelled display of activist journalism.' 'Within moments of the flooding in Texas, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] assets, including the U.S. Coast Guard, tactical Border Patrol units and FEMA personnel surged into unprecedented action alongside Texas first responders,' McLaughlin said. 'By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people,' she added. McLaughlin argued calls to dismantle the agency had been metaphorical. Under the new administration, she said, 'It's no secret that FEMA, as it is today, will no longer exist.' In what has now become a mantra of Noem's tenure, she added that the agency 'is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief.' That message has also been embraced by Trump's Republican allies in Texas. In a press conference Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) agreed with the administration that FEMA needed to be 'what I call rightsized, so that it would be more nimble, quicker in response — understanding it's the locals that know what's best in responding to a disaster.' But this description of the future course of the agency looks a lot like how it has traditionally looked, former disaster management professionals have told The Hill. 'They try to equate FEMA with red tape, but that's a red herring, because that's not how the disaster response system has been set up, particularly since Katrina,' Lemaitre said. FEMA has lost 25 percent of staff since Trump took office, cuts worsened after the floods when hundreds of call center contractors were let go, according to The New York Times. That followed reporting from CNN that Noem waited 72 hours to send FEMA disaster response teams to Kerr County — because under her leadership, the agency has to get her approval for every expenditure of more than $100,000. In a statement, a DHS spokesperson called CNN's reporting 'absolute hogwash.' Given the funds that FEMA works with and the size of Noem's purview at the department, the reported delays are 'really, really upsetting,' said Candace Valenzuela, who ran the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the region that includes Texas under former President Biden. 'It just reeks of looking at things granularly, and not understanding that this is a massive country, and doing it at that level just does not work — or wanting to pick winners and losers,' Valenzuela said. One impact of Noem's new mandate seems to be fewer federal personnel on the ground than in past disasters. In far western Travis County, where devastating floods killed more than a dozen people, even the county's chief executive isn't clear what role FEMA is playing. While Judge Andy Brown declared a local disaster in the county the day of the floods, Trump didn't approve it until nearly a week later, and, as of Tuesday, Brown had seen just one uniformed FEMA official on the ground. 'As far as I know, they have not set up that station where people can walk in, ask questions to FEMA and apply for things,' he told The Hill. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store