Southern University in Baton Rouge — a historically Black university in Louisiana — is undergoing multiple construction projects totaling $35 million to fix and prevent further structural damage to the university’s campus due to erosion caused by the Mississippi River.
Located at the outer area of a bend on the Mississippi River, where erosion is greatest due to stronger currents, parts of Southern University’s campus have become “a safety hazard that is dangerous to the population,” Maurice Pitts, the director of facilities at Southern University said in an interview on campus last year.