Work is continuing on a proposed Southern University satellite law school in downtown Shreveport. Initial conversations center around the school locating on two floors of the current Main Branch of the Shreve Memorial Library, 424 Texas St. Southern is aiming to begin classes in the spring semester of 2022 and host another in the spring of 2023. Spring semesters begin for the school in January. The desire is to find 20-30 third-year Southern students who will be willing to relocate to Shreveport from Baton Rouge for these initial pilot offerings. The Shreveport classes will allow them to earn up to 16 semester hours.
During that time, Southern can be completing all the paperwork to turn into a full branch campus and by year three, Southern hopes to be offering the final full year of classes in the JD program. 
Things get really exciting 2025 through 2029 when the hoped-for student population grows from 40-50 to 150-200. By then, the school will be a 4-year, part-time & evening/weekend 90-hour program designed for nontraditional students in the Shreveport/Bossier, northwest and northwest Louisiana regions. Nontraditional students are typically older, many who already have other jobs or careers and are unable to quit and return to college for standard ‘day’ classes.
There are questions and challenges still ahead- the library needs some roofing, window and other pricey building work, there are questions about maintenance and ownership of the Southern law library… but if all can be reconciled, downtown Shreveport will be the new home of the next Southern University Law School, the only law school in north Louisiana!
