Author
Southwest Louisiana schools’ hurricane restoration projects halted due to lack of money
Restoration to schools in South Louisiana damaged after Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Ida struck has been halted due to slow disaster relief payouts from FEMA and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Louisiana Senate Education Committee Chair Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, told state emergency officials that it’s “unacceptable, unreasonable and unconscionable” that […]
Louisiana education department releases proposed social studies standards for K-8 schools
A Louisiana Department of Education steering committee Saturday released a new version of the standards for Louisiana students learning social studies, updating the content and timeline of what history is taught in public schools. Under the proposed new standards, kindergarten through second grade students will be taught Louisiana and world history at an introductory level. By […]
Louisiana colleges, universities disrupted by Hurricane Ida back to teaching
Colleges and universities disrupted by Hurricane Ida are now operational — in-person or remotely. About 135,900 students — or 55 percent of Louisiana’s public university student population — were impacted directly by the storm, Board of Regents Chair Blake R. David said Wednesday at a regularly scheduled Board meeting. College campus buildings also “fared remarkably […]
University of Louisiana system vaccination rates range from low twenties to high seventies
After telling its students in late August that they must get the COVID-19 vaccine, or provide an exemption, in order to enroll in classes next semester, just five of the nine University of Louisiana system schools have reported student vaccination rates above 50 percent.. McNeese University (24 percent), Grambling State University (41 percent), Southeastern University […]
Louisiana residents are sleeping in tents because of damaged housing, lawmaker says
Lafourche and Terrebonne parish residents displaced by Hurricane Ida have been sleeping in tents and “using the rubble to build their own sort of makeshift structure” since the storm made landfall last month, said Speaker Pro Tempore Tanner Magee during a legislative hearing Monday. “And when I say tent, I’m not talking about like some […]
Louisiana college students must submit vaccination information before next semester
Twenty-seven of LSU’s total 34,000 students were dropped from LSU after not submitting proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or filling out an exemption waiver, which was due last Friday, Ernie Ballard, LSU’s spokesperson, said. Seventy-eight students were at risk of being dropped this week, but the other 51 students took “the necessary steps to remain part […]
Louisiana has ‘tremendous unmet housing needs’ following Hurricane Ida, governor says
Louisiana still needs billions of dollars to house displaced residents after Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Ida — the two worst hurricanes in the state’s recorded history – decimated South Louisiana nearly a calendar year apart, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Friday after a meeting with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Southwest Louisiana […]
LSU says 81 percent of students have had at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine
Eighty-one percent of LSU students have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, President William Tate announced Wednesday. Meanwhile, 72 percent of the university’s faculty and staff are fully vaccinated, an LSU spokesperson said. “If you had asked me two months ago whether this was imaginable, I would have said no,” Tate said […]
Tropical Storm Nicholas expected to dump rain on areas recovering from Hurricane Ida
South Louisiana is already experiencing outages and flooding due to Tropical Storm Nicholas, Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon, but the heaviest rainfall from Nicholas is yet to come. And it is expected “in areas most devastated by Hurricane Ida down in Southeast Louisiana.” “That’s particularly challenging because many individuals […]
Standardized test scores remain optional for LSU applicants
High school students applying to LSU this year will not have to submit an SAT or ACT score because of the recent fourth surge of COVID-19 due to the Delta variant. LSU applicants last year had the same exemption because COVID-19 prevented students from taking standardized tests in facilities big enough to maintain adequate protection […]
At LSU, tension between university board and faculty remains high
The LSU Board of Supervisors proposed — but then set aside — a motion to restructure the university’s faculty groups Friday after one professor complained the board was trying to silence them. “This will cause national embarrassment for a university whose reputation is already at a low ebb because of the way this board responded […]
LSU basketball court name change sparks debate over gender equality
The LSU Board of Supervisors voted to name the basketball court in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center after former LSU men’s basketball coach Dale Brown, but only after an extended and heated debate over whether a woman coach should be given the honor instead. Mary Werner, a LSU Board member, pushed back on naming the […]