/Institutions/Southern-University-System/json/2022-2023/Southern-University-at-New-Orleans-Academic-Catalog-local.json

/Institutions/Southern-University-System/json/2022-2023/Southern-University-at-New-Orleans-Academic-Catalog.json

Southern University at New Orleans Academic Catalog > General Information > Function and Organization

Function and Organization

Historical Sketch

Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) is a senior state university of higher learning. It was founded as a branch unit of Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Baton Rouge, by Act 28 of the Extraordinary Session of the Louisiana Legislature of September 4, 1956. Over the next two years, the Louisiana Legislature appropriated $1,050,000 out of the General Fund of the State of Louisiana's Treasury for the acquisition of property, the construction of necessary buildings, and the furnishing of the new facility.

On September 21, 1959, Southern University at New Orleans, under the direct supervision of the Louisiana State Board of Education, began its initial year of operation on a seventeen-acre site located on the perimeter of Pontchartrain Park, a subdivision of single family residences in eastern New Orleans. With a freshman class of 158 students, one building, and a faculty of fifteen, the University offered ten courses in four academic disciplines -- humanities, science, social science, and commerce. The first graduation took place in May, 1963, at which time baccalaureate degrees were awarded to fifteen persons.

Within five short years of its establishment, Southern University at New Orleans experienced remarkable growth. During the fall semester of 1964, its student enrollment increased to 1,300 and its faculty grew to 70. Also, during that same five-year period two events which significantly affected the direction of the institution occurred. First, on November 8, 1960, the Louisiana Legislature adopted Amendment 26. This act prescribed that Southern University at New Orleans shall remain in perpetuum a branch unit, an extension of Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Baton Rouge, thereby precluding any impending status of autonomy for SUNO. Second, in January 1964, Virginia Cox Welch, a white high school teacher filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Louisiana State Board of Education. This litigation, Civil Action No. 14217, resulted in opening the university to all individuals regardless of race or color.

In 1975, by virtue of Article 8, Section 7 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, the management of Southern University at New Orleans was transferred from the Louisiana State of Board of Education to the newly-created Board of Supervisors of Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. The new constitution also designated SUNO as one of three campuses of the Southern University System having parity with the other campuses.

Southern University at New Orleans benefited from the Consent Decree in the 80s. This court order handed down by federal judges as an out-of-court settlement between the State of Louisiana and the Justice Department over the issue of segregation, allowed the University to add nine new programs and to receive enhancement funds to upgrade the physical resources. However, the consent Decree failed to end racial discrimination in higher education in Louisiana. On November 14, 1994, with Civil Action 80-3300, the United States and the State of Louisiana, Governor of the Louisiana, Louisiana Board of Regents, Boards of Supervisors for Louisiana State University and Southern University and the Board of Trustees for State Colleges and Universities agreed to a Desegregation Settlement. With this Settlement (effective through 2004), SUNO retained its open admissions status and classification as a Four Year-V University, expecting to qualify as a Four Year-IV University by offering four-year undergraduate programs and graduate programs in specific areas.

Prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (August and September 2005), each year, approximately 450 undergraduate and 70 graduate degrees were awarded. The University offered approximately 400 different courses and serviced approximately 4,000 students each semester. A range of basic degree programs in the liberal arts and sciences, business, education, and the technologies, and graduate degree programs in Social Work, Criminal Justice, Computer Information Systems, and Urban Education were among the offerings. The University maintained a faculty of about 270, with 67% of the full-time faculty holding the earned doctorate. With the elimination of twenty low completer programs in January 2006, the faculty list was streamlined and the University currently employs approximately 110 full-time faculty and 50 Adjuncts. Approximately 85% of full-time faculty hold terminal degrees in their discipline.

The University was mandated by the Louisiana Board of Regents to adopt a Selective Admission status effective Fall 2010. Furthermore, the University has since expanded degree offerings to include masters in Museum Studies and undergraduate degree programs in Health Information Management Systems, Forensic Science, Child Development and Family Studies and Public Administration.

The University is currently situated on 60 acres of land incorporating 16 academic, athletic and administrative buildings across the entire campus. Originally, the main campus (renamed Park Campus) was 22 acres with 11 buildings. Following the Katrina Hurricane disaster of August 2005, Joseph S. Clark Hall, the Education Building, was declared to have sustained over 50% damage by the State of Louisiana Facility Planning & Control (FP&C) and was subsequently demolished in 2008. Similarly the Multipurpose Building was demolished in 2015. The boundaries of the Park Campus are Press Drive, Providence Place, New York St., Campus Blvd. and Emmett Bashful St. The original buildings remaining on the Park Campus are: Emmett Bashful Administration, Brown Science Building, Central Heating Plant, Leonard Washington Memorial Library, Cafeteria, Health and Physical Education, New Science, University Center and Facilities Maintenance. All these buildings underwent substantial repairs, mitigation and renovation work before they were re-occupied. In 2013 a new Modular Building Unit was constructed which functions as the University Conference Center. Currently a state-of-the-art ultramodern Natural Sciences building is under construction; it will replace the Brown Science building and New Science building. Similarly, an Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences ultramodern complex is under construction to replace the demolished Multipurpose Building.

In 1993, the University acquired a 38 acre tract of land just north of the main campus. This additional land gave SUNO the option to expand the campus map and increase the academic programs offered to students. The tract is located on Press Drive and Leon C. Simon Boulevard along Pontchartrain Lakeshore. This acquisition proved to be most useful post-Katrina as it was used to develop the university’s temporary campus (named Lake Campus), which encompassed more than 40 mobile classrooms and office trailers. In 2012, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) agreed to remove the mobile trailers and construct two new Modular Building Units for classrooms, faculty offices, conference rooms and computer laboratories. In addition to the Modular Building Units, the Lake Campus currently houses the following buildings: a state-of-the-art Information Technology Center (ITC) building that was completed and occupied in 2010; a $44M Student Housing facility which was occupied in 2011 and gives the residents a picturesque view of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Shore Drive; a $4M College of Business and Public Administration building that was completed in 2011 providing space to support the delivery of quality education, research excellence, community services, and to meet accreditation requirements. A Business Incubator was added to the Business building in 2015. Also on the Lake Campus, an ultramodern School of Social Work building (Millie M. Charles Building) was dedicated and occupied in January 2018, while a new College of Education and Human Development complex is under construction.

While the University had experienced tremendous growth and development in many areas in its short history (pre-Hurricane Katrina), the mission of the University has not changed significantly. The University was established primarily, but not exclusively, for the education of African American citizens of the Greater New Orleans area and the State of Louisiana in general. While the University admits and actively recruits qualified students without regard to race, color, origin, religion, age, sex, or physical handicap, it maintains its strong commitment to serve the higher education needs of the student population within the Greater New Orleans Metropolitan area. The current mission was formulated in the late 1990s according to the Board of Regents Master Plan for Public Post-Secondary Education and was updated in 2013. Because of its commitment to equity and opportunity, the University has always been driven by a need to serve students where they are, academically, when they enter the University. Having served as a beacon light of inspiration to its constituency, the University continues to make a meaningful contribution to the upward mobility of the people of the community which it serves.

Vision

Southern University at New Orleans is a premier, cutting edge institution that endeavors to advance the educational standing of students by preparing them to participate in and contribute to a global society and workforce development with the necessary skills, knowledge and disposition to improve their life-long learning skills and contributions to society through a TEAM (Togetherness Empowers ALL Mechanisms) approach.