LSU Alexandria is set to establish a $10-million student success center in spring 2022, pending the Louisiana Legislature’s approval during the next session in March. The expansion would consolidate student services at the school, part of a broader effort by the university to modernize campus.
Services the center will aim to streamline include admissions, financial aid, advising, career development and job placement.
LSUA was first established in 1960 as a two-year commuter college. Now a four-year university with 3,770 students, the university’s campus has been steadily growing.
Student services are currently spread out all over the campus in older buildings.
“Really I call it modernizing the campus,” LSUA Chancellor Paul Coreil said. “Bringing it from a 1960s regional campus of the LSU system to hopefully a 2021-22 version that would help our students be successful.”
Coreil said that consolidating all of these services would be a major benefit to students. He said that services such as financial aid, career decisions and scheduling classes typically require one-on-one advising, which the center would aim to provide. The center would also seek, with the help of the business community, to significantly expand internships and career development opportunities.
Coreil said the center would especially be a benefit to first-generation students who won’t have the advice of family members who went to college. The center will also focus on assisting students in their first year of college, which is when universities lose most of their students.
“At every point a student comes into contact with us, from recruiting, enrollment, advising, financial aid & scholarships, to job placement and career development, this building will be the hub of our beautiful campus,” said Adam Lord, assistant vice chancellor.
LSUA has been raising money for the center since late 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March of 2020, they were forced to put their fundraising campaign on hold for about a year, revamping their campaign in March 2021.
LSUA then approached the Louisiana Legislature to match the amount of money they raised, to which the Legislature agreed, Coreil said. LSUA raised $5 million in private fundraising, which the state will match for a total of $10 million pending a vote.
“We have been really working for a while trying to ask ourselves, ‘what is the next best addition to the campus that will have the biggest impact,’” said Stephen Wright, chair of the LSUA Foundation. “And that work has been going on in terms of strategic planning both by the college and the foundation itself and we were excited to come to the conclusion that this was the best next step.”
LSUA hopes to begin construction on the center in spring 2022 after the next state legislative session, when the Legislature votes on approval of the funding match.
“It’s a life-ring to a lot of families, having an LSU system campus here,” Coreil said. ”Not all of them can afford to go to Baton Rouge, not everybody can afford to go outside their community. To get an LSU degree here in Alexandria and have a university that has a streamlined process for our students to be successful, I’m pretty excited about it.”
