The University of New Orleans is switching gears as it prepares to transition to the LSU system on July 1st. Interim Chancellor Jeanette Weiland says the university wouldn’t have survived without the $20 million cash infusion from the state of Louisiana, but now they’re back in the black and looking ahead.
“We’re not going to subject ourselves to a survival mindset anymore. Now we are in a growth mindset, and the entire campus has rallied around one key performance indicator, which is enrollment growth,” Weiland explained.
Weiland is setting the institution’s fall enrollment goal at 6,000 students. She says as part of the LSU system, UNO can aggressively target the thousands of applicants denied by LSU’s main campus who meet its admissions requirements.
“We have a lot of capacity, a lot of room to grow. Why are we not automatically admitting every single one and then hounding them from a veiled perspective? Let’s go after them, let’s court them, let’s show them what we have, let’s give them tours,” Weiland said.
Weiland, who’s a UNO graduate herself, says keeping the university flourishing is not just business, it’s personal. She says the soon-to-be LSU New Orleans offers opportunity at an affordable price nationwide, and the best is yet to come.
“I am extremely excited about the transition. I think everyone should be. It’s going to be transformational for not only this campus, but, I think, in the next three to five years you’re going to see the city transform because of our economic development impact,” Weiland noted.
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