Would love to hear your thoughts on this column.
I’ve read and re read this article several times and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like the article focuses on UL and the university needing to do more to play nice and engage the community. While I can agree with this at some levels, my concern is that Geoff doesn’t provide a fair and balanced view of the landscape. UL is an economic engine for Lafayette, The university has a major economic impact on the city and parish, Simply looking at a few indicators such as number of people employed, students employed in the city/parish, and tax dollars collected from student spending, as well as, students who graduate and make Lafayette Parish home. UL Is a driving force for Lafayette Parish’s future, yet what I don’t is how is the parish supporting the university. It is true that the university exists on an island, but part of that is a result of the lack of community support for the university. It feels like the university is an afterthought and my experience has been that the university is never invited to the table when we talk community initiatives. For years we’ve heard about the vision for Lafayette and the parish, yet in that vision UL doesn’t get mentioned. I’ve seen articles where Lafayette is compared to Austin, TX in development potential. Austin has UT that is an integral part of their growth and is a talent pipeline for companies. Lafayette has UL, which can be that same engine that drives the city and parish into the future, however our city/parish government leaders must take meaningful steps to capitalize on the value of having a major university at the heart of Lafayette.
1 Like
Have to agree with you.
I read it a couple days ago. Maybe I need to re-read it, but I don’t remember him also including “and the Lafayette and Acadiana community needs to support the local university as well”.
1 Like
It’s a two-way street. UL and the local community take each other for granted. I will even say that the growth of the area has actually caused the relationship to be even more distant. When the City of Youngsville is calling us “UL-Lafayette” in their facebook post about the tennis tournament we participated in, that’s a problem.
The solution to these issues is simple: grow the school. Grow enrollment (with high academic standards) which will grow the revenue streams and bring more of an economic impact to the area. Ramesh has laid the groundwork. Time to get to work and get it done.
1 Like
He didn’t and that’s my concern. Collaboration is a two way street. Expectations for UL mean expectations for the community.
1 Like
This city/parish/surrounding areas, has too many “LSU baw!” “Geaux Tigers!” people throwing their money at Baton Rouge. Disgusting.
3 Likes