SHREVEPORT – LSU Shreveport and Centenary entered into an agreement which will allow Centenary undergraduate students to enroll early into LSUS’s Master of Liberal Arts program.
The collaboration will create more definitive pathways for Centenary students to continue their education in Shreveport while LSUS can attract more students into its MLA program.
Centenary president Dr. Christopher Holoman and LSUS chancellor Dr. Robert Smith signed the agreement at Centenary’s Hamilton Hall on Wednesday.
“Research has shown that being able to lay out a path for students from the very beginning leads to more success as undergraduates,” Holoman said. “Students can build on their great liberal arts skills here into a graduate degree from LSUS and further employment. It’s a win-win all around.”
Eligible Centenary seniors can get a head start on their master’s degree at LSUS while completing their final year of Centenary classes.
A 3.5 GPA is required to begin taking master’s level classes as a senior.
“When we get Centenary students to transition to the LSUS master’s program, we’re keeping students here in Shreveport and northwest Louisiana,” Smith said. “It’s important to this region and to the educational status of the area and its workforce.
“When students complete an undergraduate and a graduate degree in the city of Shreveport, they are going to be that much more likely to stay here, work here and build lives here.”
Centenary students who meet program entry requirements (3.0 GPA in the last two years of undergraduate study) can be accepted early into the MLA program, solidifying the next step of their educational and professional journey.
Centenary undergraduates will be eligible for graduate assistantship appointments, which provide a tuition waiver and compensation for hours worked.
The agreement extends to Centenary faculty, who may apply for graduate-faculty status at LSUS, allowing them to teach graduate courses in the LSUS MLA program.
Collaborative research ventures leading to conferences and workshops will be explored.
The memorandum of understanding is the second such agreement signed by Shreveport’s two four-year universities.
Centenary and LSUS signed a similar agreement this past June for Centenary undergraduates to enroll in LSUS’s Master of Public Health program.
Both Holoman and Smith emphasized that Centenary and LSUS aren’t competitors but collaborators who can mutually benefit from each other’s strengths.
