BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)  — LSU leaders hit the road for the school’s first-ever bus tour. The goal of the tour is to learn more about some of the state’s key industries and ensure they align with LSU’s priorities.

Parked outside the university stands a purple and gold bus that arrived on Friday morning with a map of the tour stops in cities: Pineville, Chopin, Natchitoches, Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, New Iberia, Jeanerette, Crowley, Lake Charles, Convent, New Orleans, and Northshore.

LSU President William F. Tate IV said a big mission of the campus is not to only provide for the students, but also to get inside the community and ensure LSU is meeting their needs.

“The most important part of what happens at a university is responding to people’s needs and that’s fundamentally what we’re going to be doing on this tour. Understanding better how we can respond to the needs of the people of Louisiana,” Tate said.

Tate will be part of the tour, along with ‘special guests’ that are set to be active citizens, legislators, and regular community members, he said.

With the tour, Tate said he is excited to find ways to improve LSU and take the ideas into action.

“We’re going to take what we learn and we’re going to put it on our planning process so that we can make sure that the work that we do at LSU is really flagship work. And flagship work is work that helps protect and secure the state and its people,” he said.

The tour is set to start on Monday, March 13, and runs through Thursday, March 16.

Visit the LSU website for full details of the tour.