Judge Lifts Injunction Barring Study of Louisiana Merger

A state judge in Louisiana on Friday lifted another judge's order barring the state from supporting a possible merger of Southern University at New Orleans and the University of New Orleans, The Advocate reported. The injunction had been granted in a lawsuit -- still pending -- by critics of the idea of merging the institutions. Southern is a historically black institution, and its many defenders say that a merger would leave a new institution without Southern's traditional commitment to low-income, minority students. Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican, has proposed the merger as a way to help both institutions, whose graduation rates he has said are too low.