The University of New Orleans’ return to the LSU System last month as LSU New Orleans brought due fanfare to the Lakefront campus. The occasion was also celebrated more than 5,000 miles away — at LSU New Orleans’ 50th annual summer session in the historic alpine city of Innsbruck, Austria. I was honored to join the festivities there as both a UNO alumnus and a first-time adjunct professor.
We had several reasons to celebrate in Innsbruck.
In addition to rejoining the LSU System and reaching the summer program’s half-century mark, we got to see outgoing UNO President Kathy Johnson spend her final days at the university’s helm mixing with students, faculty and alumni.
Johnson’s presence in Innsbruck meant a lot to those who know how tirelessly she worked to help UNO resolve the massive deficit that she inherited — and how selflessly she ensured UNO’s smooth transition back into the LSU System.
“Kathy Johnson discovered UNO’s deep financial and enrollment crisis soon after her arrival,” said National WWII Museum co-founder and former UNO history professor Nick Mueller, who founded the UNO-Innsbruck summer program in 1976. “Instead of sweeping it under the rug, she courageously dug into the books and disclosed the depth of the problem to the higher-ed community, to the public and to elected leaders. She was transparent at every step.”
Johnson addressed the crisis on several fronts. She convinced legislative leaders to provide state funding to keep UNO open and took the hits for making painful but necessary cuts. She also began teaching classes, signaling to faculty who now had to take on larger teaching loads that she would share that load.
Clancy DuBos
“I recall meeting a student who had taken her class and was very impressed that the university president would teach a course,” said Deb Karhson, who, like Johnson, earned her doctorate in psychology. “It foreshadowed the kind of president that Kathy was. She led by her example. It was inspiring to watch her.”
Among Johnson’s examples: When staffing cuts impeded efforts to remove furniture before demolishing the Liberal Arts Building, Johnson and her husband Richard helped student workers move the furniture themselves. Richard, who was not a UNO employee, even obtained a commercial driver’s license so he could haul the furniture away.
“The most impactful thing about Kathy was seeing her and her husband put sweat equity into this university,” Karhson said. “I will always attribute the university’s survival and transition into LSU to her.”
I met Karhson and more than a dozen other LSU New Orleans faculty and staff during my stint as a novice instructor in Innsbruck. That experience taught me why so many program alumni described their summers studying abroad — an opportunity I didn’t have as a college student — as “life-changing.”
Since its founding 50 years ago, UNO-Innsbruck has served more than 12,000 students and blossomed into one of the nation’s most successful summer-abroad programs. It merits strong support from the LSU System because its continued success represents a win for LSU.
Looking ahead, Mueller will chair the committee searching for Johnson’s successor. Finding the right leader will not be easy, but it will be critical to the success of LSU New Orleans — and to LSU itself.
“Kathy saved the university and set it on a new path with her best wishes,” Mueller said. “That’s her legacy. Now it is the search committee’s job to help LSU leaders find the best chancellor to serve the current and future generations of students.”
For her part, Johnson now serves as St. Louis University’s executive vice president and provost, the institution’s second-highest office. I recently spoke with her about LSU New Orleans’ future. She offered some sage advice.
“The first thing LSU New Orleans needs to do is realign its budget to make sure it’s fiscally strong and healthy without duplicating what’s going on in Baton Rouge but leans into its mission, focusing on access and affordability. If you live your mission and shine a light on what’s going well, it will be good for all. Recognize when opportunities arise, don’t duplicate — and have strong research programs.”
There’s a lot to shine a light on at LSU New Orleans. It’s the state’s only urban research university. It has the state’s only School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, its only School of Naval Architecture, the only School of Engineering in southeast Louisiana and the state’s best public university jazz studies program — to name just a few.
The LSU System would be wise to pump resources into LSU New Orleans’ research programs and all of its centers of excellence. Doing so would help rebuild LSU New Orleans and help raise LSU into the Top 50 universities in America.
It would also be a fitting “thank you” to Kathy Johnson for saving UNO — and LSU New Orleans.
