Thursday, December 5, 2024

Message from the President

Dear Colleagues, Today, the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System approved a significant restructuring to the University of New Orleans that will greatly reduce our administrative costs while enhancing program support for student learning and success, protecting our mission and preserving all of our academic programs. Feedback from faculty, staff and student leaders this month will inform some of the details, but I can share with you the broad strokes of the restructuring plan. 

• • Five degree-conferring units will be temporarily realigned into two: the College of Sciences & Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. Schools within each new college will continue to bear the names of donors, such as the Henry Bernstein School of Business Administration and the Dr. Robert A. Savoie School of Engineering. After a two-year period, we will assess whether there is sufficient enrollment and revenue growth to expand beyond the two-college arrangement. 
• • We will reduce the number of vice presidents from five to three. 
• • We will reduce the number of academic deans, directors and department chairs. 
• • An integrated University College will serve as an academic home for new students and will provide a supportive and coordinated foundation for First-Year Experience, Academic Advising, Career Development/Planning, Student Employment, TRIO Programs, Tutoring and Coaching, the Center for Teaching Innovation, International Education, and the Honors Program.

We will implement these changes in January 2025 with interim leaders appointed in University College (director), the College of Sciences & Engineering (dean), and the College of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (dean). We will also employ shared service models for IT support, administrative support and other back-office functions. We project the restructuring to yield an annual savings of $2.1 million.

To help ensure that the details of our plan are guided by input from our university community, we will first hold a town hall meeting on Tuesday, December 10 from 12-1 p.m. in the University Center ballroom to solicit your feedback and to answer your questions about the restructuring. I hope you can join us. Faculty will also have the opportunity to weigh in through a survey instrument and smaller group meetings this month.

I’d like to thank the many members of the newly formed Fall 2025 Enrollment Task Force, whose sole focus is increasing our overall enrollment by next fall. The Task Force, co-chaired by Edwin Litolff and Randall Langston, will plan and execute retention and recruitment strategies that will help us grow. To all members of our campus community, I continue to value your commitment to the University and our students.

With UNO Pride,

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