Dear ASCE – New Orleans Branch Member,

As some of you may be aware, statewide budget cuts in higher education are impacting the University of New Orleans.  Dr. Timothy P. Ryan, Chancellor of UNO, reported in January of this year that the state was expecting over a $150 million in budget cuts statewide on top of $120 million already cut last year.  The operating budget for UNO formerly included approximately $70 million in state funds, but that number was expected to drop to approximately $30 million after last year’s cuts and the anticipated cuts for this year.  The cuts from last year alone were already impacting the health and vitality of the College of Engineering and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

On February 12, 2010, Chancellor Ryan announced that Governor Bobby Jindal released his Fiscal Year 2010/2011 Executive Budget, and this budget would provide cuts in other state agencies and areas, but would not require significant additional cuts to the budgets of public universities and colleges.  Governor Jindal’s budget, however, did include a 30% budget reduction to the management boards of higher education, with the stipulation that those cuts cannot be passed along to the campuses.

On the surface, this was good news.  However, despite this positive change, the universities and colleges in our state have had a budget reduction of $250 million over the last 16 months.   UNO budget reductions during that period totaled approximately $14 million, and mid-year budget cuts from last year were made permanent.  UNO is looking at possible broad sweeping changes in the structure and funding of higher education in the near future.  On Friday, February 5, 2010, the Post Secondary Education Review Commission (PERC), which is conducting a review of multiple aspects of higher education in the state, released its final recommendations.   Although this is an advisory panel, there are several provisions which have a significant possibility of being passed and/or adopted by the Board of Regents.   Recommendations include the abolishment of the current management board structure into a single board system, academic course redesign, and tuition authority funding.

At the January meeting of the University of New Orleans College of Engineering Dean's Advisory Council, Chancellor Ryan, while discussing the cost cutting options available to UNO, mentioned the possibility of eliminating named engineering degree programs (Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Naval Architecture), and replacing them with a "general" Bachelors of Science degree in Engineering (similar to what UNO offered back in its early days).  The reaction by the members present was swift and unanimously against any such action.  He downplayed his intentions to go forward with such a move at that meeting, but did not guarantee that it would not take place.

It has come to our attention that he is still seriously contemplating this option.  We, the leadership of the New Orleans Branch of ASCE, believe this would have a particularly adverse affect on our membership, as the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNO provides not only a recruiting resource for our member firms but also a source for continuing education.  In our opinion, a healthy, accredited civil engineering program is vital for not only the civil engineering community but for the City of New Orleans as a whole.

At the advisory council’s January meeting, it was discussed that support from the local business community would be imperative to remind the leadership of UNO of this need.  I am asking for all those who feel that anything less than a fully accredited, independent Civil and Environmental Engineering Department in a College of Engineering at UNO would adversely affect their businesses or the local economy to contact either Chancellor Ryan or Dr. Russell E. Trahan, the Dean of the College of Engineering, to express your thoughts.  Letters may be addressed to either the attention of Dr. Ryan or Dr. Trahan at the following address:

College of Engineering
University of New Orleans
2000 Lakeshore Drive
New Orleans, Louisiana 70148
Phone: (504) 280-6328
Fax: (504) 280-7413
Dr. Ryan and Dr. Trahan may also be contacted by electronic mail at tpryan@uno.edu and rtrahan@uno.edu, respectively. 

I encourage everyone to investigate for themselves the potential threat to the UNO CEE program.  These budget cuts and statewide policies can impact the program in a number of detrimental ways.   There is currently a statewide hiring freeze, and there are several prominent faculty members that will be retiring soon.  This policy could prohibit suitable replacements from being hired.   The loss of key faculty could impact accreditation, weakening the program, and potentially easing the blow of folding the department into a larger, more generic one.  This is particularly disappointing, as the College of Engineering, and the CEE department in particular, is currently outpacing most of the school in returning to pre-Katrina levels of admission. 

Inaction on the part of the civil engineering community and the business community of New Orleans will almost certainly lead to the worst case scenario described previously, and possibly the complete elimination of the program.  After losing the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Tulane University, I personally find this possibility to be untenable.  Please join me in making our voices heard, so that Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNO will be spared for the present and the future.

Sincerely,

Benjamin M. Cody, P.E.

ASCE – New Orleans Branch President 2009/2010