Historic Louisiana

SOUTHEASTERN
LOUISIANA
UNIVERSITY
✧
Above: With more than fourteen thousand
students, Southeastern has become
Louisiana’s primary university for the north
shore and the Florida Parishes. The
University offers sixty-three degree
programs in a wide range of areas.
Below: Following World War II,
veterans–armed with the G.I. Bill for
financial assistance–flooded Southeastern’s
campus. The G.I. Bill provided for tuition,
educational expenses, and a monthly
stipend for living expenses. For many of the
veterans who had grown up during the
Depression, the monthly stipend was more
money than they had ever had.
HISTORIC LOUISIANA
132
The dream of a junior college, conceived in
the early 1920s by prominent citizens led by
Dr. Lucius McGehee and Linus A. Sims,
evolved to become today’s Southeastern
Louisiana University, a high-tech center for
higher education.
Voters in southern Tangipahoa Parish
approved a one-mill tax to establish the
institution. The school opened September 14,
1925, on the second floor of Hammond High
School, to 40 students and 6 faculty
members. Enrollment grew rapidly, and voters
approved more bonds to buy fifteen acres
with existing buildings that could be adapted
to living and classroom space.
As the renamed Southeastern Louisiana
College continued to grow, new facilities
replaced those in which a student’s foot went
through the science lab ceiling and the
football team dressed in a barn and showered
with a garden hose. By 1935, Southeastern
had 20 teachers and 340 students, a 71-acre
campus, and modern buildings. WPA
funding, matching money from the state, and
continued support from taxpayers financed
nine new buildings from 1938-40, prompting
the student newspaper to comment that “The
era of progress is upon us.”
An all-time-high enrollment of 612 in
1940 plunged to 250 as the boys went to war,
with 29 of them sacrificing their lives for
their country. The end of the war brought
veterans back to Southeastern on the G.I.
Bill, and many government surplus buildings
from Camp Claiborne were rebuilt on the
campus to provide needed space.
During the 1950s integration was
peacefully achieved, and Southeastern’s first
African American graduate received her
degree. Another enrollment boom, a new
graduate program, a School of Nursing, and
the addition of twenty new buildings marked
the 1960s, along with the era of “Roomie,”
Southeastern’s live lion mascot.
Although long hair and peace signs were
part of the scene in the 1970s, Southeastern
saw few of the campus protests and violence
that made headlines elsewhere. On July 16,
1970, Southeastern found a new identity,
becoming Southeastern Louisiana University.
Enrollment spiraled from 1985-95, when
Southeastern became “the fastest growing
university” in the country, with enrollment
reaching over fifteen thousand. Higher
education had gone high-tech, as the
university used the Internet, satellite
locations, and other tools to meet students’
needs and lifestyles. Admission standards
were implemented, and school/business
partnerships, diversity, community service,
and international partnerships for student
and faculty study abroad all increased.
With its growth and change, Southeastern
has become Louisiana’s university for the
Florida Parishes and the north shore.