The ICMSN: four universities behind UL Lafayette's MSN
UL Lafayette's MSN is a joint program: McNeese State, Nicholls State, Southeastern Louisiana and UL Lafayette run it together as the Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing. A partner school may teach some of your courses, yet you remain a UL Lafayette student under UL Lafayette's rules. On the clinical side the consortium's handbook sets the procedure, and every match we make is built around it.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UL Lafayette program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UL Lafayette course.
One MSN, four home schools
The 2026-27 catalog describes UL Lafayette's MSN as offered through an affiliation with the ICMSN. Four Louisiana public universities make up the consortium: McNeese State University, Nicholls State University, Southeastern Louisiana University and UL Lafayette. All four sit inside the University of Louisiana System, yet each stays the home school for the students it enrolls.
Your home school is the one you applied to. The handbook has students follow their home institution's catalog and academic calendar, so for you the 2026-27 UL Lafayette catalog governs program requirements and UL Lafayette's registrar governs your term dates.
UL Lafayette's online MSN concentrations (Family Nurse Practitioner, Psychiatric/Mental Health NP and Nursing Education) run through the consortium, and CCNE lists the post-graduate APRN certificate under the ICMSN too. The DNP stands apart as UL Lafayette's own program with its own accreditation.
Courses taught at partner schools
Every consortium university runs Moodle as its learning management system. When a course in your plan of study is taught by faculty at McNeese, Nicholls or Southeastern, it appears inside UL Lafayette's Moodle, reached through ULink like the rest of your coursework. The student systems guide covers ULink, Moodle and the rest of UL Lafayette's tools.
A partner-taught course can keep the teaching school's calendar. The handbook notes that start and end dates vary across the four universities and expects students to know those dates so they join on time. UL Lafayette's Fall 2026 term opens Aug. 24 and Spring 2027 on Jan. 13, and a course taught elsewhere may begin on a different day; see the academic calendar for UL Lafayette's own dates.
Messages go through one channel. The handbook requires your university email account for every exchange with faculty and preceptors, which for a UL Lafayette student means the Outlook address tied to your ULID.
The Online Enrollment Form, every advising period
Seats in partner-taught courses are not filled automatically. Each advising period, MSN students complete the ICMSN's Online Enrollment Form at nursingconsortium.org, the step that loads them into courses taught at the other schools. The handbook is blunt that skipping it leaves your seat in such a course at risk.
Build the form into each advising cycle
- Submit it every advising period, not only in your first term
- Check it against your plan of study so every consortium course is listed
- Keep registering through ULink on UL Lafayette's schedule; spring 2027 advising runs Oct. 26 to Nov. 6, 2026
- Save a copy of what you submitted for your own records
Your faculty advisor is the first stop for which courses in a given term come from a partner school. UL Lafayette's online advising page lists one faculty advisor for the MSN and the PMHNP post-master's certificate.
Home-school rules that follow you
The consortium pools courses, not rulebooks. On the questions that decide whether you can sit in a clinical course, the handbook sends students back to their home institution:
- Clinical health: a student who cannot show the home school's clinical health requirements is not allowed to remain enrolled in any clinical nursing course
- Background checks and drug screens: the handbook defers to home-school requirements, and the student bears the cost
- Clinical tracking: students subscribe to the tracking system their home school requires and keep it active through the NP practicum courses
- Repeats: a course carrying a C is retaken under the home school's policy, at the home university whenever it is offered there
A few rules reach across the whole consortium. No student may collect more than two W grades, a D or F in any course ends progression in the graduate nursing program, and every student keeps an unencumbered Louisiana RN license. An unreported encumbrance or disciplinary action against that license brings immediate dismissal.
Accreditation and approval held by the consortium
CCNE accredits the master's program under the ICMSN's name, covering all four universities together. That accreditation dates from Sept. 27, 2008, was most recently renewed March 8, 2023, and runs through Dec. 31, 2033, with CCNE's next on-site visit set for Spring 2033. The post-graduate APRN certificate, which takes in UL Lafayette's PMHNP Post-Master's Certificate, was first accredited March 8, 2023, with the same end date.
Louisiana's Board of Nursing lists the ICMSN, UL Lafayette included, with full approval. UL Lafayette's DNP carries separate CCNE accreditation of its own, also through 2033. In practice, the MSN's accreditation and Board approval belong to the consortium as a whole, whichever of the four schools teaches a given course. The accreditation guide covers each body, including SACSCOC at the university level.
What the consortium means for your clinicals
For clinicals, the ICMSN handbook is the rulebook a UL Lafayette MSN student works under. Its procedure for setting up NP and nurse educator experiences covers four areas, and each has its own guide here:
- The file: contract, recent preceptor CV, signed letter of agreement and your health, OSHA and HIPAA records, all held by the graduate nursing office before day one (clinical paperwork)
- The preceptor: graduate preparation in a relevant field, a current license, APRN certification in the area, a fitting setting and a year of practice (preceptor requirements)
- Your job: workplace hours kept apart from job duties and unpaid (workplace clinicals)
- The grade: a final evaluation that a preceptor or faculty member marks unsatisfactory brings an F for the course (faculty oversight)
The handbook also counts made-up entries in clinical or practicum records as academic dishonesty, so clinical logs answer to the same integrity standard as a paper or an exam.
Why UL Lafayette students choose us inside the consortium
We read the consortium's handbook and UL Lafayette's home-school rules together, so what we prepare satisfies both. Whatever part UL Lafayette plays in lining up your clinical, we find you a Louisiana preceptor who meets the ICMSN minimums and Louisiana's Board rule, and we have the contract details, CV, letter of agreement and your own records organized before the term. When a course runs on a partner school's dates, we plan your clinical calendar around them.
UL Lafayette's course faculty and graduate coordinator have the final word on every preceptor. What they receive from us is complete, current and already shaped to the consortium's procedure. Start with how it works; the form below takes your concentration and the advising term you are planning.
Questions UL Lafayette students ask
Will McNeese, Nicholls or Southeastern faculty teach some of my courses?
They may. The ICMSN shares MSN courses across its four universities, and a course taught at a partner school shows up in UL Lafayette's Moodle beside your other courses. Your faculty advisor can tell you which courses in a given term come from a partner school, and the Online Enrollment Form is how you are loaded into them.
What happens if I miss the ICMSN Online Enrollment Form?
The handbook warns that without the form your place in a consortium course taught at another school is at risk, since the form is how students are loaded into those courses. Complete it every advising period. If one slipped past you, contact your faculty advisor right away instead of waiting for the term to open.
Does the ICMSN handbook apply to UL Lafayette DNP students?
The ICMSN is the consortium for the Master of Science in Nursing, and UL Lafayette's DNP is its own program with its own CCNE accreditation, admission rules and catalog section. DNP students follow the 2026-27 catalog's DNP requirements, including background checks and screening before the residency courses, and the DNP Coordinator plans each student's program.
Which calendar do I follow as an ICMSN student?
Your home school's. The handbook directs students to the catalog and academic calendar of their home institution, which for you means UL Lafayette's 2026-27 dates. The exception is a course taught at a partner school, which can start and end on that school's schedule, so check each course's dates once it appears in Moodle.
Can I retake a course with a C at a partner school?
The handbook says a course with a C is retaken under the home school's policy, and at the home university if the course is offered there. UL Lafayette's MSN also limits repeats to one and does not count a C toward the plan of study. A D or F in any course stops progression altogether.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against UL Lafayette's 2026-27 catalog, its online program and state authorization pages, the ICMSN student handbook and Louisiana's nursing rules. Your course faculty and your plan of study have the final word.
Whether UL Lafayette helps or you start alone, we find the preceptor.
Tell us your UL Lafayette program, the practicum coming up and the Louisiana town you train near. We look for preceptors and sites that fit the course and gather the license, CV and agency details that must be on file before your first clinical day.
- Preceptors who meet Louisiana's rules: an active Louisiana license, most hours with an APRN in your population focus
- The preceptor's CV, the agency details and your letter of agreement items gathered early
- Across Acadiana and the rest of Louisiana, plus DNP residencies in your home state
Start your placement plan
Your program, your town and your next clinical semester is all we need to begin.