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They're probably assuming that LSUS will collapse within a year or two which would make the 3rd and 4th years of the PetroEngineering curriculum useless. I thought the LSUS students couldn't afford to pay the Louisiana Tech tuition rates. Isn't LSU-BR more expensive than LA Tech?Originally Posted by Dawg06
This is correct. The degree will be offered from LSU BR with students able to take some of the non enginering classes on LSUS campus. The degree would be from Baton Rouge, students would pay LSU BR fees for the classes they take online and they would have to meet LSU requirements to be accepted to the program. This removes the requirement to get BOR approval for the degree program.
Students will pay for non engineering courses at LSUS rates and engineering courses at LSUBR rates. Probably ends up being a wash vs Tech money wise, but if the merger had happened they would have actual professors teaching the class vs. online offerings.
LSU hasn't actually said that it will be online. The discussion has been online, professor traveling from BR, or hiring new faculty for the program. I suspect that it will be determined by what kind of demand they find for engineering in Shreveport. Petroleum engineering seems like a great idea on the surface, but there aren't a lot of people going into petroleum engineering at the campuses that offer it right now. I think it is just a way for LSU to say that they tried, and the demand for engineerng programs was just not there.
Yep. Nothing about it makes any sense. I find it funny that the LSU System is talking about the petroleum engineering being LSUS's flagship program when it's online and not even their own program.
And the problem with "petroleum engineering with a focus on natural gas" is that it is way too limiting. Shreveport needs a broader engineering degree that would provide significantly more opportunities for graduates. That's why the Manufacturing Managers Council strongly supported the merger. The natural gas field is too narrow, and all of the natural gas companies are leaving NWLA because the price of natural gas has plummeted.
Well, if LSUBR can offer Petroleum Engineering degrees in Shreveport like this, you can expect them to start offering ME, EE and other engineering degrees through the same means very soon. There's nothing limiting them to PE degrees.
HD
If that happens, they are gonna produce some sh*tty engineer majors.
Fixed it for ya.
You are right HD...We dropped the PE program that, for many years had the highest ranking (according to ECPD accreditation) program in the state. Thanks, DR, for getting rid of the degree that currently has the highest starting salary in the country. How ironic that we, supposedly the premier engineering school in Louisiana, where the oil and gas industry is our lifeblood, abdicated our position and allowed make believe programs like the one at the USL trade school and Nichols State to offer one.
How on earth would lspooS offer a PE program? PE requires a lot of courses in other engineering such as Chem E, EE, ME, CE. Is lspooS going to develop yet another substandard "engineering school"? And forget the online crap. That doesn't work very well in engineering.
Oh well!
You are correct Dawg06. You can't separate out natural gas from "other" petroleum engineering. If you do you won't have much. Petroleum Engineering includes all aspects of natural gas and you can't just strip it out. Of course, a PE who gains experience in predominantly gas related endeavors gradually becomes more of an expert in that aspect. It's like you can't get a degree in just cardiac surgery. You have to ge the MD degree for starters.
It's the same reason you don't typically degrees in "Civil Engineering with a focus on bridges" or "Electrical Engineering with a focus on alternative energy".
Besides that, natural gas companies like Chesapeake Energy are beginning to focus more resources toward oil production anyway as a result of the plunge in natural gas prices.
The News-Star editorial board slams the LSU System:
http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/2...ssey=topicpage
The Manufacturing Managers Council's take on the merger bill being pulled:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/artic...enefits-region
Carmody will bring forward a resolution to keep the LSU System accountable:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/artic...ttee-s-horizon
What's the chance that some of these politicians against this proposal are from areas that support other UL system schools and are afraid that this will push Tech toward flagship status of the UL system, so are voting against it because of that and won't have their minds changed regardless. They succeed on two fronts-1 for their loyalty to LSU and 2 for the few constituents who are loyal to their local schools that don't want Tech becoming a flagship? Therefore not just making it a regional battle against the northern LSU loyalists.
Is that how it went down? I had always heard that the PE program was a victim of lsubr not wanting competition and exerting its will through the BoR.
Research enrollment in PE at Louisiana Tech.
Well, I suppose there was some element of that factoring in the decision, but I'm not too sure of how much. Tech's PE program and LSU's actually cooperated fairly well. And yes, enrollment was an issue. But it's always been that way in this field. Mainly because the industry is highly cyclic and the demand for many years vasilated. But it was that way for all the PE schools. Enrollment was down at LSUBR at that time as well.
The big difference was probably that Tech's PE Department Head, at the time, a local boy from a prominent Ruston family, was way too laid back to take the necessary actions to keep the department alive. His predecessor, who was not a favorite of the school administration, was nevertheless a go getter who went out and got significant outside funding to keep things going. He kept everything going and kept the department's ECPD acrreditation at the top level. The thanks he got was for Dean Bogard to confiscate his supplemental funding, which he got all by himself.
I think -- and I may be wrong on this, although I was still very closely connected to the department at that time -- the reason for the department's demise was a complete lack of any managerial or leadership skills by the replacement.
The bottom line is that it was not a well thought out long term move on Tech's part.
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