Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Message from the President

Dear Faculty and Staff, 

I am so grateful to Distinguished Professor Emeritus Dr. Warren Billings for loaning me his copy of the early history of the University of New Orleans entitled, “UNO Prisms, 1958-1983,” published to celebrate the University’s 25th anniversary. I have found great inspiration and some solace in learning that many of our current challenges are not new. Resources have often been tight, facilities have been tough to maintain, and our students may not always be as prepared for university coursework as we hope that they will be. 

What strikes me about the pioneering spirit of the faculty and staff that came before us is their drive to create an innovative urban research university that was something very new for Louisiana. University leaders, faculty, and staff were deeply committed to delivering outstanding academic programs to an integrated student body, even though that integration was bitterly resisted by at least some students and members of the surrounding community.

Dr. Joseph Tregle Jr., the first Chief Academic Officer, wrote about developing an educational program that rested on two important foundations—access and excellence:

“It reflected a profound faculty promise that LSUNO would serve all who might profit by its tutelage, white or black, rich or poor, but it embraced just as passionately the pledge that what was to be offered would match or surpass in academic substance and quality those programs heretofore available only in institutions beyond the financial means of the great majority of New Orleanians. Egalitarian in openness, it would be unabashedly elitist in its academic demands, not out of a misplaced reach for prestige but essentially in response to the conviction that anything less would be trickery and deception upon an already ill-served community.” (pg. 8) 

As I reflect with great excitement about the future priorities for the University of New Orleans that have been advanced through our UNO 2030 planning process, I also am simultaneously grappling with the urgent need to right-size our budget and to invest in the maintenance of our aging buildings. This is an extremely difficult task, but I know that with creative innovation, a can-do spirit, and a laser-sharp focus on the core aspects of our mission as a student-centered research university, we can get there. 

I so appreciate that our predecessors took the time to honestly share their reflections on our earliest days as a young university. It continues to inspire today and gives me tremendous hope for the future. 

With UNO Pride,

Kathy Johnson, Ph.D.
President
The University of New Orleans