, judith@rustonleader.com
09-05-2006
Great students, great faculty, great facilities — Louisiana Tech University President Dan Reneau emphasized these attributes as the building blocks for the university’s success.As classes will begin Thursday at Louisiana Tech University, faculty and staff members gathered at Howard Auditorium this morning to hear Reneau discuss the institution’s successes during the 2005-06 year and expectations for the upcoming year.
“We have great students, great faculty and great facilities,” Reneau said. “We continue to have the highest retention rate in the University of Louisiana System with 84 percent, and we continue to have the highest graduation rate in the University of Louisiana System with 55 percent. The state’s average is at 35.3 percent.”
He added that data compiled from the Board of Regents indicated that Tech students finish their bachelor’s degrees faster than any other school in the state.
Also, Reneau mentioned the current construction projects taking place on Tech’s campus.
“The new Student Achievement Center housed in Wyly Tower will open for business during the fall quarter,” he said.
“This facility will provide curricular and co-curricular tools for student success.”
Reneau added the new biomedical engineering building, which will connect with the Institute for Micromanufacturing, would be completed soon.
“The new biomedical engineering building, a 52,000 square-foot facility educating tomorrow’s leaders in biomedical engineering and housing cutting-edge research and innovation, will be complete later this year,” he stated.
After the meeting, university spokesman Wiley Hilburn said enrollment at the university would probably be down this year.
He said Hurricane Katrina continues to be the main problem.
“Tech student loss has come particularly from southeastern Louisiana,” Hilburn said.
However, Hilburn said an increase is anticipated in the freshman class, which is expected to be the best academically qualified in the university’s history.
Other accolades Tech has received in the past year include a technological license agreement with the California-based company Holochip, new businesses coming into the business incubator and having its senior architecture students build a local home for a Habitat for Humanity project.
Fall quarter for the university officially begins Wednesday.
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