SHREVEPORT – Consultants recommend consolidating Louisiana Tech University and LSU-Shreveport to improve educational opportunities to the underserved in northwest Louisiana.

The report by Virginia-based Eva Klein & Associates, Ltd., was commissioned by a group of Shreveport and Bossier City area civic and business leaders and the Louisiana Board of Regents.

Eva Klein recommends the two universities be merged as a single Louisiana Tech, with a Ruston campus and a Shreveport campus. The university would be part of the University of Louisiana System.

The two campuses are about 70 miles apart.

Such a proposal would face a tough road to passage.

It would require support from the Board of Regents and a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. It also faces strong resistance from the LSU System.

If a merger isn’t possible, Klein recommends the LSU-Shreveport campus be transferred to the UL System and renamed.