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T h u r s d ay, M ay 7, 2026
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Historically Black colleges at risk of losing millions
2026 LEGISLATURE CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Senate expands death penalty eligibility Change prompted by mall shooting
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Students walk to class at Southern University in Baton Rouge.
Trump’s anti-DEI order means redistribution of money in La. Institutions with greatest losses
BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer
As President Donald Trump’s administration moves to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at U.S. universities, Louisiana’s higher education board is cutting an incentive that encouraged universities to graduate more minority students. The change means the state’s historically Black colleges and universities stand to lose millions of dollars. “I’m not going to lie, because the numbers are out there,” interim Southern University system President Orlando McMeans said. “It will put us in the red as it relates to funding for 2026-27.” The Louisiana Board of Regents doles out money from
The top five public universities and colleges in Louisiana that lost the most in total estimated formula calculations for fiscal year 2025 after the underrepresented minority metric was removed.
Institution
Dollars WITH Dollars WITHOUT underrepresented underrepresented minority completers minority completers
Southern University and A&M College Grambling State University Southern University in New Orleans Baton Rouge Community College Delgado Community College
$24,947,310 $16,403,133 $6,089,260 $20,643,638 $32,692,613
$23,878,973 $15,503,849 $5,791,344 $20,360,457 $32,485,279
Source: Louisiana Board of Regents
the Legislature to the state’s public colleges and universities based on a complex formula. For the new fiscal year that starts July 1, that formula
Loss $1,068,337 $899,284 $297,916 $283,181 $207,334 Staff graphic
will no longer include an “un- graduation rates than the rest derrepresented minority com- of the population. pleter” metric, which rewardKim Hunter Reed, ed institutions for graduating ä See MILLIONS, page 7A students of races with lower
The Senate altered a bill Wednesday night to expand who can be charged with first-degree murder in Louisiana, citing April’s mass shooting at the Mall of Louisiana as the reason for the change. With little debate and no opposition, the chamber approved an amendment to House Bill 102 that revises the definition of first-degree murder, an offense that can carry the death penalty, to include killings carried out in public places where at least three people were at risk of great harm. It would further add killings committed with illegally possessed firearms and those committed by defendants out on bail, probation or parole. Louisiana has few restrictions on who can carry guns, but it is generally illegal for people with felony convictions to do so. In a statement, Gov. Jeff Landry, who successfully pushed to resume executions in Louisiana after a 15year hiatus, called the amendment to HB102 “absolutely necessary” and said it would bring the state’s criminal justice system “one step closer” to delivering “true justice” for victims. “I promised the people of this State and the city of Baton Rouge
ä See EXPANDS, page 7A
U.S. jet fires on Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman Trump seeks to pressure Tehran into reaching a deal
Wednesday as President Donald in a social media post. The attack occurred as Iran and Trump sought to pressure Tehran the U.S. are officially in a into reaching a deal to end ONFLICT ceasefire. Trump threatthe war. The Islamic Re- CO public said it was review- IN THE ened Tehran with a new T wave of bombing if a deal ing the latest American MIIDDLE is not reached that inproposals. BY JOSHUA BOAK, BEN FINLEY AST A fighter jet shot out the EAST and RUSS BYNUM cludes opening the critirudder of the tanker in the Associated Press cal Strait of Hormuz. Gulf of Oman as it tried to breach Trump posted on social media WASHINGTON — The U.S. military the American blockade of Iran’s that the two-month war could fired on an Iranian oil tanker ports, U.S. Central Command said soon end and that oil and natural
WEATHER HIGH 78 LOW 66
Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group was announced April 17. Fighting has continued since then in southern gas shipments disrupted by the Lebanon. conflict could restart. But he said Trump insisted Wednesday that that depends on Iran accepting a Iranian officials want to end the reported agreement that the presi- war. “We’re dealing with people that dent did not detail. Meanwhile, Israel struck Bei- want to make a deal very much, rut’s southern suburbs for the first ä See TANKER, page 8A time since a ceasefire between
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ä Trump administration sows confusion on Iran strategy. PAGE 5A
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