The Board of Regents’ study to analyze the feasibility of merging the University of New Orleans and Southern University-New Orleans has been temporarily suspended after a court order was issued Tuesday by the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge.
The order was issued after a lawsuit was filed against the Regents and Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday.
The suit was filed by former state Sen. Cleo Fields, of The Fields Law Firm in Baton Rouge, and co-filed by Katrina Jackson, of the Law Office of Willie Hunter Jr. on behalf of seven Southern University students from the Baton Rouge and New Orleans campuses. The lawsuit states the higher education board’s current makeup is unconstitutional, as it has no minority membership and is not representative of the state’s population.
The document calls for a temporary restraining order on the actions of the Regents, which was issued Tuesday.
The Regents’ study, called for by the governor on Jan. 18, was scheduled to be complete by its March 1 deadline, but work cannot continue until after the scheduled Feb. 24 court hearing.
“Decisions regarding these universities’ merger are being made by a body whose membership is in violation of the Louisiana Constitution,” the lawsuit says.
The Louisiana Constitution states, “the board should be representative of the state’s population by race and gender to ensure diversity.”
The suit argues Jindal removed all appointed racial minorities from the Board and replaced them with all white males on Dec. 17. Of the 15 appointed members, there are no racial minorities, and only four members, or 26 percent of the membership, are women.
It also states the membership underrepresents the female and black citizens’ population of the state, providing statistics from the 2010 Census.
“The failure of the appointing authority to follow the Constitutional mandate and appoint a Board which reflects the state’s race and gender population results in the Board’s inability to take any official action regarding any proposed merger unless and until it is properly constituted,” the suit reads.
The lawsuit followed a series of negative comments from the New Orleans area regarding the potential merger.
At a Jan. 26 forum centered on discussion of the merger, SUNO Faculty Senate President and former SUNO
Chancellor Joseph Bouie said legal action would be the school’s last resort. Bouie said SUNO would file a federal suit against the state for denial of equal access to education for blacks if fighting legislative action did not work.
“Having just received the lawsuit this morning, the Board of Regents is currently reviewing the document, and as in common practice when dealing with litigation, will not be making any comments at this time,” Regents spokesperson Meg Casper said Tuesday in an e-mail.
The Regents hired the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a Colorado-based consultant, to assist in the merger analysis on Jan. 28. According to the contract agreement, the state agreed to pay NCHEMS up to $99,000 to complete the study by its deadline.
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Contact Sydni Dunn at [email protected]