Inside Report for Nov. 5, 2008

• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Nov 5, 2008 - Page: 7B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Three thousand dollars. The donation of 25 acres from the Girard family and a 2-mill tax levied on residents that was estimated to yield $8,000 in 10 years.

That’s what Lafayette offered to persuade the state to set bricks in Lafayette rather than New Iberia for the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute created in 1898.

In 1938, after $2 million was secured to build 12 new buildings — its largest building boom to date — then-Mayor Maxime Roy credited the institution for its progressive growth.

“The remarkable progress is in keeping with the progress of Lafayette, which is marching forward to take its rank among the first cities in Louisiana,” remarked Roy and his administration in an ad placed in the alumni magazine.

Those 25 acres are now included in a 125-acre main campus — now known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The university’s foundation boasts assets of about $150 million and annual sponsored research of more than $50 million.

Outside the gates of the university, where would Lafayette be without the institution that began as little more than a high school 108 years ago?

Forget the campus. Erase the Cajundome, and the neighboring Convention Center. Gone, too, would be the USGS National Wetlands Research Center and the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise Center.

The beloved festivals: Festivals Acadiens et Créoles and Festival International de Louisiane, both rooted in university ties — gone. And take away about 25 percent of the jobs that exist, City-Parish President Joey Durel says. Lafayette’s growth has been in tandem with the success of the university, say Durel and the university’s supporters.

Lafayette saw how important the university was during its last great economic hardship when bank accounts deep in oil were drained during the bust in the ’80s.

The university was credited with diversifying Lafayette’s economy, pumping more money into programs such as computer science.

While the university has had a strong relationship with the local economic development authority, new President Joe Savoie has taken another step to show the university’s seriousness about its role in developing the regional and state economies.

Savoie has created a new position — a director of economic development and technology transfer. He’s also been at virtually every meeting where the mayor’s been invited.

“People are understanding that it will take the university and city to make things happen,” Durel said recently.