SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) - LSU’s Board of Supervisors has approved what it calls a realignment plan that will make the LSU system’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center an academic unit of the main Baton Rouge campus.
Although the law school currently sits on that campus, it is considered a separate institution, with a separate chancellor. It also goes through a separate accreditation process.
The Advocate reports (https://bit.ly/1iM324D ) that LSU’s Board of Supervisors approved the change Friday during a meeting in Shreveport. LSU President & Chancellor F. King Alexander said the change will provide new interdisciplinary academic and research opportunities for LSU students and faculty.
“If you look at the schools we compete against, we are the anomaly. We are the only one that is set up this way. They’re not separate at the University of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana or Michigan, and no other SEC school is structured that way,” Alexander said, referring to the Southeastern Conference.
The realignment will need approval from committees of two organizations: the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the American Bar Association.
“The proposed realignment will provide an administrative framework for advancing interaction between the Law Center and LSU,” said LSU Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost Stuart Bell. “The realignment allows us to better serve the needs of our law students and faculty by providing more collaboration and more interaction among all of our programs, including enhanced partnerships with disciplines such as science, engineering and business.”
Accrediting rules require that LSU and the law school enter into a contractual agreement in order for law students to have access to the university’s health center, dining halls and recreational facilities. Merging the two institutions would eliminate the need for that kind of bureaucracy, Alexander said.
He added that the move will be done slowly over time, allowing both institutions to ease into a new relationship where they will be sharing services and collaborating more closely.
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Information from: The Advocate, https://theadvocate.com
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