Ouachita Parish Junior College (1931–1934) Northeast Center of Louisiana State University (1934–1949) Northeast Junior College of Louisiana State University (1949–1950) Northeast Louisiana State College (1950–1969) Northeast Louisiana University (1969–1999)
The University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. It is made up of four colleges: the College of Business and Social Sciences; College of Pharmacy; College of Arts, Education and Sciences; and College of Health Sciences.[5] ULM enrolled 8,678 students in fall 2025, including 1,680 graduate students.[3]
ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it became the Northeast Center of Louisiana State University. In 1936 and 1937, its dean was Stephen A. Caldwell.[6]
Its name changed again in 1949, to Northeast Junior College of Louisiana State University. A year later, it became an autonomous four-year institution as Northeast Louisiana State College. In 1969, it granted doctoral degrees for the first time and was elevated to university status as Northeast Louisiana University (NLU).
In 1999, Northeast Louisiana University (NLU), under university president Lawson Swearingen, agreed to a controversial name change of the university. It was changed so that two schools would change to "University of Louisiana" and a geographical indicator in their name, as required by a 1995 state law that allowed the change if two or more schools in the University of Louisiana System agreed to it. Northeast Louisiana University would be renamed to University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) and University of Southwestern Louisiana would be renamed to University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL).[7][8]
21st century
Bayou Desiard crosses the ULM campus.ULM Library and Conference Center
A 2002 "Reclaim Our Campus" effort targeted recovery from financial and auditing difficulties.[9]
In 2016, ULM was recognized as a military and veteran friendly campus by the state of Louisiana[10] as a result of the approval of House Bill 485.[11]
In 2025, Carrie Castille was named the 10th president of ULM and first female president.[12] Following her appointment as president, Castille helped ULM and Louisiana Delta Community College improve the transfer process for students in applied sciences.[13]
Academics
Department of Atmospheric Science
The Department of Atmospheric Science at the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM), in Monroe, Louisiana, offers the only four-year undergraduate meteorology program in the state. It is housed in the School of Sciences within the College of Arts, Education, and Sciences and has been designated a “Program of Unique Excellence” by the Louisiana Board of Supervisors. The program is notable for owning and operating a polarimetricS-band Doppler weather radar, acquired through state homeland security funding and brought into operation in the mid-2010s. Students and faculty routinely launch weather balloons from campus in advance of hazardous weather, transmitting data to the National Weather Service to support nowcasting and short-term forecasting in northern Louisiana.[14]
College of Business
The College of Business and Social Sciences (CBSS) seeks to prepare students for productive careers and responsible citizenship. It encompasses four colleges and provides 20 different programs.[15]
Marriage & Family Therapy
The University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) first developed a master's degree program in marriage and family therapy in 1981 and first joined the ranks of COAMFTE accredited master's degree programs in marriage and family therapy in 1986. The ULM MA in MFT program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE), and has been continuously since 1986.
The Ph.D. degree program in Marriage and Family Therapy at University of Louisiana at Monroe prepares graduates for careers as scholars/teachers, researchers, supervisors and senior clinicians. The 69 credit-hour program integrates systemically oriented philosophy and theory, clinical practice, and qualitative and quantitative research. ULM is one of only a few universities in the U.S. that offers both a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy, (COAMFTE).
College of Pharmacy
In the early fifties, there was a significant shortage of pharmacists in Louisiana. On August 11, 1956, the 5th District Pharmaceutical Association[17], former college president Lewis C. Slater[18], and others approved a pharmacy school at Northeast Louisiana State College. By 1970, a new facility was built for the School of Pharmacy and was named Sugar Hall, in honor of the late Leon Sugar, a sponsor of the pharmacy program.[19] The Bachelor of Science program in Toxicology was initiated in 1982 and is to this day one of six toxicology programs in the U.S.[20] In July of 2005, the School of Pharmacy separated from the College of Health Sciences to form the College of Pharmacy. By 2007, the College of Pharmacy moved from the main campus to the off-campus (Bienville) building. The ULM Pharmacy program is currently the only publicly supported center in Louisiana for pharmaceutical education and research.[21]
The College is in a 132,000 square foot, three-story building with modern classrooms, health service facilities, and research labs.
In 1999, a New Orleans physician and philanthropist Milburn E. Calhoun honored his parents with the establishment of the Mary E. and Darrell L. Calhoun Endowed Chair. With gifted funds of a total of $1 million.
A couple of years later, the Calhoun family gave another $50,000 through an estate gift to the chair, which is above $1 million. In the year of 2025, the Louisiana Legislature approved a $2 million supplement to enhance the operation and research programs of the College of Pharmacy.
Theater Arts
ULM is home to the Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall, named for the opera singer and daughter of the Coca-Cola entrepreneur Joseph A. Biedenharn.[22]
Natural History Museum
The university's Natural History Museum was home to the 6-million-specimen Neil Douglas fish collection and the 500,000-specimen R. Dale Thomas plant collection. In March 2017, museum staff announced that they had been told the collections would have to be divested to enable an expansion of the university's stadium, and that any specimens which had not been relocated to other institutions by July 2017 would be destroyed.[23] The specimens were subsequently distributed to other institutions, with the plant collection going to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, the herpetological collection to the University of Texas at Arlington, the entomological collection to Mississippi State University, and the ichthyological collection to Tulane University.[24]
ULM Warhawks StadiumSt. Patrick's Day Parade (2013) - ULM's Sound of Today band
ULM athletic teams participate in NCAA Division I (Division I FBS for football). ULM joined the Sun Belt Conference for all sports on July 1, 2006, after playing in the Southland Conference in all sports except football (swimming and diving team was in Sun Belt Conference, but was dropped in 2005). The school's sports teams previously competed as the Indians until 2006.
ULM has eight campus-based residencies for students. They are a mix of traditional residential halls, private rooms, and apartments. These residences include Madison Hall, Ouachita Hall, the University Commons, University Suites, Bayou Suites, Bayou Village Apartments, Masur Hall, and Warhawk Village Apartments. To live on campus, ULM students are required to hold a minimum GPA (varying from 2.0 to 3.3 depending on the residence), as well as full-time student status.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]
Greek life
ULM Fraternity and Sorority Life includes the three following governing councils: National Panhellenic Conference, National Pan-Hellenic Council, and North American Interfraternity Conference. ULM recognizes fourteen Greek organizations - four fraternities within the Interfraternity Council, three sororities within the College Panhellenic Conference, and seven sororities and fraternities within the National Pan-Hellenic Council - each of which is a campus chapter of a national group.
↑McGuff, Joe (January 27, 1965). "Talk of the Times". The Kansas City Times. Missouri, Kansas City. The Kansas City Times. p.13. Retrieved November 30, 2015– via Newspapers.com.
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