Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. The university was founded in 1860 near Pineville, Louisiana, under the name Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. The current LSU main campus was dedicated in 1926 and consists of more than 250 buildings constructed in the style of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, occupying a plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River.
LSU is the flagship university of the state of Louisiana, as well as the flagship institution of the Louisiana State University System. In 2021, the university enrolled over 28,000 undergraduate and more than 4,500 graduate students in 14 schools and colleges. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
LSU's athletics department fields teams in 21 varsity sports (9 men's, 12 women's), and is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The university is represented by its mascot, Mike the Tiger.
History
19th century Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College had its origin in several land grants made by the United States government in 1806, 1811, and 1827 for use as a seminary of learning. It was founded as a military academy and is still today steeped in military tradition, giving rise to the school's nickname "The Ole War Skule". In 1853, the Louisiana General Assembly established the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana near Pineville in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana. Modeled initially after Virginia Military Institute, the institution opened with five professors and nineteen cadets on January 2, 1860, with Major, later Colonel, William Tecumseh Sherman as superintendent.
The Old LSU Site, the school's original location, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
On January 26, 1861, when Louisiana became the fifth state to secede from the Union, Sherman resigned his position after only a year as Superintendent to return north and eventually resume his service in the Union Army. The school closed on June 30, 1861, after the start of the American Civil War.
During the war, the university reopened briefly in April 1863 but was closed once again during the Union Army's Red River Campaign. The losses sustained by the institution during the Union occupation were heavy, and after 1863 the seminary remained closed for the remainder of the Civil War. Following the surrender of the Confederates at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, General Sherman donated two cannons to the institution. These cannons had been captured from Confederate forces after the close of the war and had been used during the initial firing upon Fort Sumter in April 1861. The cannons are still displayed in front of LSU's Military Science/Aerospace Studies Building.
The seminary officially reopened its doors on October 2, 1865, only to be burned October 15, 1869. On November 1, 1869, the institution resumed its exercises in Baton Rouge, where it has since remained. In 1870, the name of the institution was officially changed to Louisiana State University.
Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College was established by an act of the legislature, approved April 7, 1874, to carry out the United States Morrill Act of 1862, granting lands for this purpose. It temporarily opened in New Orleans, June 1, 1874, where it remained until it merged with Louisiana State University in 1877. This prompted the final name change for the university to the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.
20th century
In 1905, LSU admitted its first female student, R. O. Davis. She was admitted into a program to pursue a master's degree. The following year, 1906, LSU admitted sixteen female students to its freshman class as part of an experimental program. Before this, LSU's student body was all-male. In 1907, LSU's first female graduate, Martha McC. Read, was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree. After this two year experimental program, the university fully opened its doors to female applicants in 1908, and thus coeducation was born at LSU.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/mwg-internal/de5fs23hu73ds/progress?id=pClHVJaqvH95POPytmxnoKtOYFiPBXWuGL-32Rw2sO8,&dl Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College, "Gumbo Yearbook, Class of 1909" (1909). Gumbo Yearbook. 11. p. 140
On April 30, 1926, the present LSU campus was formally dedicated, following the school's history at the federal garrison grounds (now the site of the state capitol) where it had been since 1886. Before this, LSU used the quarters of the Institute for the Deaf, Mute, and Blind. Land for the present campus was purchased in 1918, construction started in 1922, and the move began in 1925; however, the move was not completed until 1932. The campus was originally designed for 3000 students but was cut back due to budget problems. After years of enrollment fluctuation, student numbers began a steady increase, new programs were added, curricula and faculty expanded, and a true state university emerged.
In 1936, LSU awarded its first Ph.D. in any subject to a woman, Harriett Ruth Idol. Dr. Idol was in the Speech Department (today's Department of Communication Studies) and her dissertation was titled "A Strobophotographic Study of Southern Intonation." Dr. Idol's landmark study was one of the earliest experimental, instrument-based attempts to map the specific speech patterns, melodies, and pitch variations that define the American Southern accent.
LSU was hit by scandal in 1939 when James Monroe Smith, appointed by Huey Long as president of LSU, was charged with embezzling a half-million dollars. In the ensuing investigation, at least twenty state officials were indicted. Two committed suicide as the scandal enveloped Governor Richard W. Leche, who received a 10-year federal prison sentence as a result of a kickback scheme. Paul M. Hebert, Dean of LSU's law school at the time, then assumed interim presidency in Smith's place.
During World War II, LSU was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
In 1952, Charles Edward Harrington became the first African American to earn a degree at any level from LSU (master's degree in education).
The following year (1953), LSU admitted its first Black undergraduate student, Alexander P. Tureaud Jr., however, he was not allowed to finish his first semester.
In 1954, Ernest N. Morial became the first African American graduate from the LSU Law School.
In 1959, Floyd L. Sandle was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. at LSU in any subject. Dr. Sandle was a member of the Speech Department (today's Department of Communication Studies) and his dissertation was titled "A History of the Development of the Educational Theatre In Negro Colleges and Universities and Its Relationship to Significant Movements In Community Relations From 1911-1959." Dr. Sandle was "a pioneer of Black Educational Theatre in Louisiana" and is still a major influence on Black performing artists today.
In 1964, six Black students were allowed to enroll as undergraduates, and Freya Anderson Rivers became the first African-American woman undergraduate.
In 1967, Pinkie Gordon Lane became the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. degree.
In 1969, mandatory ROTC for freshmen and sophomores was abolished; however, LSU continues to maintain Air Force and Army ROTC.
In 1978, LSU was named a sea-grant college, the 13th university in the nation to be so designated. In 1992, the LSU Board of Supervisors approved the creation of the LSU Honors College.
In 1970, Claude Jenkins Tellis became the first African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans.
In 1971, Dolores Richard Spikes became the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics.
21st century After Hurricane Katrina, LSU accepted 2,300 displaced students from schools in the greater New Orleans area such as Tulane University, Loyola University New Orleans, Xavier University of Louisiana, and the University of New Orleans. The Pete Maravich Assembly Center was converted into a fully functional field hospital, with approximately 3,000 student volunteers.
In 2012, LSU was censured by the American Association of University Professors for firing Professor Ivor van Heerden after he made comments critical of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for their design and construction of the levees that broke following Hurricane Katrina.
In 2013, F. King Alexander was named President of Louisiana State University.
In 2016, Michelle Lollie became the first African-American woman to graduate with a PhD in physics from LSU.
In fall 2020, LSU broke its record for the most diverse and largest freshman class in history. Of the record 6,690 freshmen, more than 30% identified as students of color, African-Americans made up the most at 16.8%. Additionally, LSU reached its all-time highest enrollment at 34,290 undergraduate and graduate students.
William F. Tate IV was named the new president of the university on May 6, 2021, effective in July. He is the first African-American president in LSU's history and the first African-American president in the SEC.
Sexual misconduct controversies A November 2020 investigative report in USA Today accused LSU of mishandling sexual misconduct claims against LSU football players. LSU hired Husch Blackwell LLP to review policies in response to the report. Husch Blackwell released a 262-page report in March 2021 confirming the USA Today story, adding that the problems within LSU went far beyond the allegations detailed in the investigation, with many of the problems being widespread across the university. In the fallout of the report, former LSU Tigers football coach Les Miles and former LSU president F. King Alexander were forced to resign from their jobs at the University of Kansas and Oregon State University, respectively.
In February 2021, the US Department of Education announced a formal, federal investigation will be conducted on the university's reported mishandling of sexual misconduct cases; specifically on possible violations of the Clery Act. In April 2021, the Department of Education announced the opening of a second federal investigation where LSU's handling of student complaints of sexual assault and harassment from the 2018–2019 academic year to the present will be analyzed.
Two months later, seven women filed a federal class-action lawsuit against LSU and its leadership based on their inability to report their incidents to the university's Title IX office. The seven women were six former students (three of whom were part of the women's tennis team at LSU and two of whom were student employees in the football recruiting office) and one current student. In June 2021, football coach Ed Orgeron was added as a defendant to the Title IX lawsuit, alleging that Orgeron was aware of and failed to report the rape allegation of former running back Derrius Guice.