A Different Kind of Black College Merger Idea

Ronald Mason Jr., president of the Southern University System, set off a controversy last week when he suggested that the University of New Orleans be merged into the system. The University of New Orleans is part of the predominantly white Louisiana State University System, while Southern is historically black. Headlines about Mason's comments led some to believe he wanted to merge the UNO campus into Southern's New Orleans campus -- an idea he has since stressed isn't what he was talking about, The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. The idea he wanted to put on the table -- likely equally controversial, but different -- was to move the University of New Orleans into the Southern system. Mason has experience with controversial merger proposals and black colleges, having in January, while president of Jackson State University, backed a plan to merge Mississippi's three public black colleges. (That plan didn't advance.)