Jeremy Alford and David Jacobs: Leadership changes underway at La. universities

The recent drama at LSU, featuring Gov. Jeff Landry in the starring role, has overshadowed the fact that the entire leadership landscape of higher education in Louisiana is shifting. 
Campus leaders are shuffling in and out. The largest systems are weighing major structural changes, and school officials could be answering to a different accrediting body in the not-too-distant future. 
Landry, wielding power across the spectrum of state government like no one since Huey Long, is in the middle of that story, too. And while there are political risks to the approach he’s taking, that’s never stopped him before. 
“Louisiana’s higher education system is a mess, and anyone who’s paying attention can see that,” Landry said via a spokesperson. 
Landry pointed to UNO as an example of that messiness. Lawmakers this year voted to move New Orleans’ public research university into the LSU system, in hopes of reversing enrollment decline and addressing a fiscal crisis. 
In his brief statement to LaPolitics, Landry also alluded to his recent involvement in all things LSU. New system President Wade Rousse, who got the top job with Landry’s help, told student leaders that he thinks the governor’s recent level of involvement is “not healthy,” the Reveille reported. 
But Rousse said he understood why Landry would want to step in given the leadership vacuum following the departure of former President William Tate, and thought the governor would be happy to step back from “any sort of micromanaging” now that he and incoming chancellor James Dalton have been hired. 
Landry seemed to endorse that sentiment. 
“Until recently, LSU did not have permanent leadership, and that lack of accountability showed,” he said. “Now that strong leadership is in place, LSU can handle its own business – and that’s exactly how it should be.” 
LSU Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Lee Mallett said Louisiana governors have always been involved in what’s going on at LSU, and they should be, given the university’s crucial role in the state they govern. However, he said Landry has not communicated an overriding vision to the board. 
“Wherever LSU goes, the state goes that way too,” Mallett said. “If he doesn’t get involved and it collapses, he’s going to get blamed.”
The roles of LSU system president and main campus chancellor were combined under Gov. Bobby Jindal, which Mallett considers a mistake. He said the job is too big for one person, and the last two presidents were not good at external relations, which is a problem for a public university where raising money and working with the Legislature is crucial. 
Separating the roles allows Rousse to be the CEO, overseeing finances and athletics while serving as the public face of the LSU brand. Dalton will be more like a COO, promoting research, working with faculty and handling other internal matters, Mallett said.
The next university in line for a leadership change appears to be UL-Lafayette. Joseph Savoie stepped down this summer after 17 years on the job, leaving the university with a $25 million deficit.
“We have processes in place for boards to follow when choosing what’s best for their university,” said House Education Chair Laurie Schlegel, when asked about the potential for a quick hire at UL-Lafayette. “And I hope that happens in this situation.”
Rousse is leaving McNeese State to take the LSU job, which means the UL board also will be tasked with finding his replacement. Louisiana Community and Technical College System President Monty Sullivan is retiring, so that’s another key role that will need to be filled. 
Those hires will join a crop of new faces in Louisiana higher education, including Northwestern State President Jimmy Genovese, hired last year; UL Monroe President Carrie Castille, selected in May; Heather Poole and Justin Hoggard, new chancellors at Central Louisiana Technical Community College at Louisiana Delta Community College respectively; and former Sen. Joseph Bouie, who in August began serving as chancellor of Southern University at New Orleans, a job he previously held from 2000 until 2002 when he was pushed out. 
Genovese, who had no previous experience in higher ed, moved from the Louisiana Supreme Court to Northwestern State with Landry’s support. His move opened a path for Cade Cole to be elected to the court, again, with Landry’s backing. 
Landry’s Task Force on Public Higher Education Reform recently held its final meeting before reporting its findings to the Legislature by Jan. 30. The group is laying the groundwork for Louisiana to join the Commission for Public Higher Education, launched by several Southern states and Texas as a politically conservative alternative to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges that currently is responsible for accrediting Louisiana universities. 
Getting out from under diversity, equity and inclusion requirements was Landry’s stated reason for joining the CPHE, which the U.S. Department of Education has not yet approved as an accreditor. But Misti Cordell, Landry’s Board of Regents chair who serves on the task force, said the change also might provide an opportunity to be on the ground floor of a less bureaucratic system Louisiana officials could help to shape. 
“There would have to be some dual accreditation to be fair to other campuses that just went through the SACS process,” she said. “So it’s not something that would take place all at once, but it certainly shifts our focus to, what is important in education now?” 
Cordell said “rural relevance,” ensuring that the state’s regional colleges and universities are serving the workforce needs of their regions, is one of the governor’s top higher ed priorities. Another is avoiding unnecessary program duplication, she said. 
Tony Clayton, Landry’s choice to chair the Southern University System Board of Supervisors, said the task force also has facilitated conversations outside of formal meetings among higher ed leaders. That includes discussions about how to reward Southern for its “social mobility” mission of taking on students who might not be as prepared for college as enrollees at other schools and helping them succeed, he said.
He said Landry tasked him with making Southern one of the top-ranked historically Black colleges and universities in the country and a major part of the state’s workforce development efforts. 
“When I look at the U.S. News and World Report [rankings], I want to see an upward trajectory,” Clayton said, paraphrasing what Landry told him when the governor picked him to chair Southern’s board. “And you have my full authority to make the necessary changes that need to be made.”
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