Photo By: Marie Constantin

In the early 1930s, the federal Works Progress Administration converted a thick cypress-tupelo swamp into an urban lake in Baton Rouge’s growing southeast environs. A lake was infinitely more appealing than a swamp, local officials believed, especially in the part of the city that now housed LSU.

The campus had been relocated to its current site from downtown in 1926, and an eye-catching body of water served as the ideal gateway. University Lake joined the existing City Park Lake, which had been dug a decade earlier. Together, they have formed one of the city’s most enduring points of recreational activity and civic pride.

But the lakes’ long-term sustainability is another story.

Composed of the two main lakes—University and City Park—and four smaller water bodies—Lake Crest, Lake Erie, Campus Lake and College Lake—the 275-acre site attracts scores of joggers, walkers, kayakers, fishers and picnickers. Numerous running events, including the Louisiana Marathon, are held along all or part of the area, which is a well-known migratory bird flyway that also attracts naturalists and photographers.

Sophie Gibson shows the Etoile DuBard Award of Excellence she received in November 2011 from the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council, or IMSLEC, for her work with reading disabilities. (Advocate staff photo by Bill Feig)

In the years Sophie C. Gibson was studying chemistry at LSU, she probably never dreamed that her career would be in reading disabilities and education rather than in the sciences. Things changed for Gibson when three of her five children were diagnosed with dyslexia.

According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the word “dyslexia” was first used in 1895 to describe a child with normal intelligence who exhibited difficulty in learning to read.

“It’s a brain difference. The brain processes language differently,” Gibson said.

In November, Gibson was recognized for her work in the field of reading disabilities with the Etoile DuBard Award of Excellence presented by IMSLEC, the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council.

The new study by The National Jurist magazine on the “Best Schools for Bar Exam Preparation” examines bar passage rates compared to the academic quality of students who enter the law school through the results of the Law School Admission Test or LSAT.

The argument is that the graduates of most law schools pass bar exams relative to the academic preparedness of the new students. “But some schools … buck the averages,” according to the article. The LSU Law Center reportedly leads the nation in bucking the trend with a large standard deviation of 1.77 over the 1.00 average score.

The consultant report promoting a merger of LSU-S and Louisiana Tech issued recently represents that a reorganization is likely to place authority for all LSU units on the LSU A&M
campus and consolidate the various units into that campus in Baton Rouge.

As you no doubt know, the Board of Supervisors is in charge of the various units of the LSU System, and the Board has created a Work Group to look at various opportunities for collaboration and reorganization that would enhance the success of the individual units of the LSU System. While there may be ad hoc, self-appointed groups seeking various outcomes (such as the group that financed the study on merging LSU-S and LA-Tech and moving them to the UL System), the LSU Board of Supervisors has authorized its Work Group to conduct an open and broadly consultative process to identify ways of addressing possible benefits of various types of collaboration.

In these discussions, it is important to emphasize the following:

(1) no decision has been made to place the A&M campus in charge of other campuses as was reflected in the widely distributed Carville interview as the position of the Flagship Coalition and is repeated and ascribed to the Flagship Coalition in the Shreveport consultant’s report;

(2) the Board of Supervisors adopted a Work Group on Organization and Collaboration Report (attached) that sets forth an open, transparent, and accountable process that involves input from all constituent groups, especially the faculty and staff;

(3) any decision regarding reorganization rests with the constitutionally- established Board of Supervisors; and

(4) as responsible action and the Ethics Law make very clear “all governmental decisions and policy [shall] be made in the proper channel of the governmental structure.” This applies to all state/LSU employees as well as to others who perform “governmental functions.”

I provide you with this background so that you can help your faculty, staff, students, and other constituencies of your institutions understand how the LSU System and its Board of Supervisors will proceed to address any proposals or other initiatives related to institutional mission and organization of LSU institutions.

Please see that this note and the attached information is distributed to the faculty, staff, and students of your institution.

John V. Lombardi
President
Attached: Word Group on Organization and Collaboration Report
Cc: Board of Supervisors of the Louisiana State University System

LSU Boyd Professor Arthur J. Riopelle

BATON ROUGE – Arthur J. Riopelle, Boyd Professor of Psychology and Professor Emeritus at LSU, passed away on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the home of his daughter in Houston. He was 91 years old.

A native of Thorp, Wis., Riopelle graduated from the University of Wisconsin and then joined the U.S. Army in 1942. Following his tour, he returned to Wisconsin and earned his Ph.D. in experimental psychology. From there he taught at Emory University, and in the late 1950s became director of the Psychology Division of the Army Medical Research Laboratory in Fort Knox, Ky, and worked with the Army and Air Force in the project that sent the first monkeys into space and return them safely to Earth. He also conducted research on the effects of radiation to help protect future astronauts. In 1959 he became director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Orange Park, Fla., where he conducted psychological and biomedical research. Riopelle subsequently became the first director of the Delta Regional Primate Research Center in Covington, La., and later joined the faculty at LSU in 1972.

He was respected internationally for his work on primate learning and nutrition and spent the final portion of his career guiding Ph.D. candidates as professor of experimental psychology at LSU.

He was named as one of the university’s Boyd Professors in 1977, the highest distinction an LSU faculty member can achieve for national and international distinction for outstanding teaching, research or other creative achievement. He retired from the university in 1988.

During his career, Riopelle authored more than 150 scientific publications and book chapters, in addition to articles in National Geographic Magazine about the first-ever-described albino gorilla that his research team found in Rio Muni, Africa, and transported to enjoy a long and happy life at the Zoological Garden of Barcelona, Spain. An amateur violinist, Riopelle was an avid supporter of the performing arts at the university and also donated an endowment to be used to purchase materials in his field of psychology to LSU Libraries in the 1990s.

Information regarding services was unknown as of Feb. 20, but Riopelle’s family has requested that in lieu of flowers, friends make contributions in his memory to the LSU Library. Checks may be made payable to the LSU Foundation and mailed to LSU Libraries, Attention Elaine Smyth, Rm. 295 Middleton Library, Baton Rouge, La. 70803.

On that date, the board will hear a report on a study that recommends the merger, giving Tech campuses in both Ruston and Shreveport, under the umbrella of the University of Louisiana System.

It’s a proposal Louisiana Tech President Dan Reneau warmly embraced at a briefing on the study’s results Friday in Ruston, describing the potential merger as a “win-win” situation.

“I think there’s a lot here to look at. On the surface, this report looks like a positive outcome for our institution and our region,” he said. “It looks like a great opportunity for everyone. I think we have to study it and see what the Shreveport-Bossier community wants and what the Ruston community wants, but I see more positives than negatives.”

LSUS Noel Library

A study commissioned by business leaders containing several suggestions to improve the university offerings in the area, including combining LSU-Shreveport with another university, will be released today in a public meeting.

The meeting will be at 3 p.m. at the Shreveport Convention Center. The study, conducted by consultant Eva Klein of Eva Klein and Associates, explored a number of scenarios to bulk up the four-year higher education offerings in the area, but the top two were either combining LSUS and Louisiana Tech University or moving LSUS to the University of Louisiana system, said Dr. Phillip Rozeman, head of the SB Higher Education Imperative, the group that commissioned the study. The study is part of the group’s focus on location higher education issues.

“We asked her (Eva Klein) to look at ways the community could support higher education,” he said. “Last legislative session, we took a look at statewide legislation. This year, we took more of a regional approach. We looked around to our own situation and felt that the place we could have the greatest improvement would be any area expanding the capacity of four-year universities.”

The area has a large number of nontraditional students or students who can’t move away to go to school, so a four-year university is needed in the area. When it comes to work force development, there needed to be a conversation based on solid research and ideas. That’s why the group commissioned Klein, Rozeman said.

“We wanted to concentrate this year on the concept of how do we build a four-year comprehensive presence in the Shreveport-Bossier area. After thinking about it, there were a lot of possibilities. We didn’t feel and still don’t feel we have a lot of expertise in this area, so we contracted with Eva Klein.”

A higher education consultant has recommended consolidating Louisiana Tech University and LSU-Shreveport to improve educational opportunities to the underserved in northwest Louisiana.

The report, by Virginia-based Eva Klein & Associates, Ltd., was presented Thursday in Shreveport. The study was commissioned by a group of Shreveport and Bossier City area civic and business leaders and the Louisiana Board of Regents.

Eva Klein recommends the two universities be merged as a single Louisiana Tech, with a Ruston campus and a Shreveport campus. The university would be part of the University of Louisiana System.

The two campuses are about 70 miles apart.

Such a proposal would face a tough road to passage. It would require support from the Board of Regents and a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. It also faces strong resistance from the LSU System.

If a merger isn’t possible, Eva Klein recommends the LSU-Shreveport campus be transferred to the UL System and renamed.

LSU System President John Lombardi has said the LSU System had no interest in combining its Shreveport campus with Louisiana Tech. He called the idea an attack on the LSU System’s integrity.

Rebekah E. Gee MD MPH FACOG, Assistant Professor, LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans' Schools of Public Health and Medicine

Rebekah E. Gee MD MPH FACOG, Assistant Professor, LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans’ Schools of Public Health and Medicine, has been chosen to receive a Recognition of Distinction for Excellence in State Maternal Child Health Leadership Award from the Association of Maternal & Child Health (MCH) Programs. The award honors Dr. Gee’s leadership, vision, and contributions to the health of women, children, and families in Louisiana.

The award, which was established this year, recognizes outstanding state MCH professionals whose careers have made significant contributions to their state’s MCH program, state maternal and child health outcomes, and who have made other significant contributions to promoting and protecting the health of women, children, and families in their state. Dr. Gee is one of three people chosen nationally as the inaugural recipients of this prestigious award.

The award is being presented to Dr. Gee today, February 14, 2012, in Washington, DC.