Are we drawing nearer to the end of another HBCU - Southern University of New Orleans?

Louisiana's Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, is continuing his efforts to merge two struggling universities there -- historically black Southern University of New Orleans and the largely white University of New Orleans.

At his urging, a state House committee took the first major step toward the merger on Wednesday after nearly six hours of emotional testimony from supporters and opponents, voting in favor of legislation to combine the two schools.



Nola.com reports that House Bill 537 would combine the institutions into the new University of Louisiana at New Orleans starting in fall 2013.

It's tempting for those of us who believe strongly in the continuing value of (and are admittedly a bit sentimental about) HBCUs to interpret this proposed merger as a typically conservative, and culturally and historically tone-deaf, attack by Gov. Jindal (whom we've never been able to take seriously since his bumbling State of the Union rebuttal in 2009, and who we don't think would lose a wink of sleep over the closing of every black school in the nation, any more than he would over overturning "Obamacare.")