Source: New Orleans Magazine

The University of New Orleans celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. This piece looks at some of the highlights and contributions the university has made, but one especially caught my eye:

Making a middle class. Prior to 1958, New Orleans could be described as a city with a small but pronounced upper class, a huge underclass and a weak and faltering middle class. It is hard to imagine that the city went 240 years from its founding without having a permanent public university. Until UNO, local students ready for college had to either be able to get into a private university or leave town. UNO changed that by giving a chance at higher education to many people who might have otherwise been denied. The school has always been a commuter college, its students often holding jobs while matriculating. Through five decades, UNO has given those students a chance to advance themselves and the city an opportunity to escape its former third-world reputation. In its own quiet way, UNO may have saved the place whose name it carries – and no more can be asked of any university.