BATON ROUGE — The LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans and LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport, starting this month, are now recognized as branch campuses of the flagship LSU campus in Baton Rouge. 

The merger was approved by the Board of Trustees of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges in June, but it did not go into effect until Aug. 1. SACSCOC now formally recognizes the newly organized institution as Louisiana's flagship university and a unified research enterprise.

Following the merger, LSU now operates as an integrated research enterprise encompassing four distinguished and complementary centers: the LSU Agricultural Center, LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. 

"Together, we will produce world-class research, deliver cutting-edge instruction and career preparation, and serve all Louisianians through our shared commitment to improving the human condition," LSU Chancellor Jim Dalton said. "This work advances LSU's broad vision of ensuring both access and excellence. While we are unified as a single institution, we also recognize and respect the specialized work occurring across LSU's research, instructional, and patient care sites and value the benefits that an appropriate degree of operational autonomy provides to the state."

As part of this merger process, SACSCOC will appoint a team of external reviewers to evaluate LSU's implementation plans and conduct an on-site visit in the fall. LSU will also work to secure final approval from the U.S. Department of Education to receive final authorization at the December 2026 meeting of the SACSCOC Board of Trustees.