SGA: Oubre plans to make UL 'much better place'

Monday's UL Lafayette Student Government meeting marked the semester's first with a full Senate, and Steve Oubre, principal architect of the Master Plan, visited and gave his 45-minute pitch to involve SGA in promoting the campus' improvement and expansion.

"What is important, at the end of the day, is to understand that the University of Louisiana has, over the last 100 years, had the opportunity to be something very special," said Oubre. "Over time, because of various dynamics, it has lost ground. We're probably at the bottom of the rung at the history of this university relative to the physical place that we call the University of Louisiana."

The plan, which Oubre said can be realistically completed in 10 years, took one year of preparation to compose and the campus has already seen it implemented in the form of a parking tower and new dorms.

Oubre's presentation largely focused on making the campus more cohesive between the research park, academic campus and the former Our Lady of Lourdes property. The Cajundome-to-campus transit frustration was also addressed; Oubre proposed a tram that ran every 15 minutes instead of attempting to build more on-campus parking. Oubre said an additional parking deck would cost $14,000 per car space, costing in total the equivalent of the tram system.

With the increased student traffic between the three campus components, Oubre said there is the opportunity for private development along major roads and intersections, like Cajundome Boulevard, Congress Street, St. Mary and Johnston. Along these roads, traffic flow will be revamped with wider sidewalks, fewer automobile lanes and designated bike lanes, increasing safety for all travelers.

"These are not rocket science things," said Oubre. "These are just place-making things that we think will make the university a much better place."

Other ideas proposed included a 2,100-seat performing arts center, converting Lourdes into a medical campus, revamping the entrance and surrounding areas to Cajun Field and developing retail-on-bottom, residential-on-top buildings along major roads and campus edges.

"It all works off of each other. If you only do one piece, it's a formula for failure, so the goal is to get enough cohesion to get all of these things going on," said Oubre. "It's not a monoculture. It's a mix of private sector, public sector, federal moneys, local moneys."

For further information about the Master Plan, visit ullafayettemasterplan.wordpress.com.

After Oubre's presentation, President Kylie Templet initiated 10 new SGA senators and then skipped committee and college reports to save time.