Study Looks At Merger Of La. Tech, LSU-Shreveport

A group of Shreveport-area civic leaders has commissioned a study on the possibility of merging LSU-Shreveport and Louisiana Tech University.

Reports state that the Committee of 100 of Shreveport-Bossier recently retained a Virginia-based consultant to look at whether the two schools can be reorganized into a single research-based entity. The $115,000 study is to be done by the end of the year.

Louisiana Tech, part of the University of Louisiana System, is in Ruston, about 70 miles east of LSU-Shreveport.

Any merger would face strong resistance from the LSU System. Its president, John Lombardi, has advised Shreveport campus leaders not to participate in the study. A merger also would require support from the Board of Regents and a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.