Dear Southernites and Friends:

 

In the midst of SU Day at the Capitol, the close of this year's regular Legislative Session, and alumni tours of our Baton Rouge campus, I attended a great meeting of the Baton Rouge campus's Academic Council.  Foundation CEO, Al Harrell, and I had an opportunity to present to the University's deans, at the invitation of interim Provost Dr. Luria Young, the status of the Imagine 20,000 project.  We explained that part of the next steps will be the creation of task forces to assist the consultants who are developing feasibility studies for the Master Plan for Imagine 20,000.  Al and I shared that the Innovation and Development Committee very much appreciates the deans willingness  to lead a task force to provide programmatic input into the feasibility studies to determine what projects are needed and achievable. 

 

I was so pleased by the deans' support of this strategy for developing the planning process.  The deans expressed their support for the vision of growing enrollment on our campus to 20,000 students over the next 10-15 years by transforming our campus physical structure, expanding the campus beyond its current borders, and seeking new innovative opportunities.  The boldest expansion idea posed in the Imagine 20,000 project is the creation of a Southern University medical campus that would include a Southern University medical school.  A Southern University Medical School.  Some would say this idea is too ambitious for Southern to achieve.  However, I strongly disagree.  More importantly, a Southern University medical school in North Baton Rouge would have a major economic impact on the community and provide much needed health care for the community.  A medical school and a major medical campus could almost singularly transform North Baton Rouge and the Greater Baton Rouge community.  Yes, I know we have to fix some of our current problems on our main campus, but we must be ambidextrous:  fix our problems and imagine a more innovative, community-centric Southern University at the same time.