SU System administrative woes; Administrative Woes;SU System administrative woes; Administrative Woes;

The search for a new Southern University System President has just begun, led by a search committee made up of students, alumni, and representatives from the Board of Supervisors and faculty. The search group met for the first time on November 4 to create a plan to quickly discover the replacement for current System President, Ronald Mason. In August, the Board of Supervisors decided against extending Mason’s contract past June 30, which resulted in months of infighting. The group hopes to make a recommendation at the board’s December 12 meeting, although the decision is ultimately up to the board members and their suggestions could be disregarded.
“We are only here to make a recommendation,” said Rev. Joe Gant, chairman of the search committee. “The board can accept what we bring or reject it and completely pick somebody else.”
Applications for the position will be posted on Southern University websites, and the committee will accept them through the first of December.
Amongst the problems at system level, the SUBR campus is also lacking a definite chancellor. Finance Administrator Flandus McClinton Jr. is currently serving indefinitely as Acting Chancellor until the board makes a final decision. SU Law Center and Agriculture chancellors Freddie Pitcher and Ledorey Williams were both granted extensions to their soon-to-expire contracts.
“It’s incumbent upon us to get a leader to lead this ship,” said Gant, who also believes the SU system should focus on filling the role of System President before moving on to the three chancellor openings, in order for the new system leader to have a say in the decisions.
Accompanying the issues of administration, or lack thereof, the university is facing serious financial struggles. State budget cuts have significantly reduced the funding that the SU system receives, and the university is currently barred from raising tuition prices after failing to meet the benchmarks outlined in the state of Louisiana’s GRAD Act. The act allows schools who’ve met certain student success measures to raise their tuition by 10 percent, and those who haven’t lose 15 percent of their overall state funding.
“The Louisiana legislature has grappled mightily with how to fund and even to reconfigure Louisiana’s educational system,” said Southern University’s Alumni Federation President Preston J. Castille Jr. “As it tries to make all of higher education stronger, the Louisiana Board of Regents will similarly have to decide which academic programs will flourish, be altered or perish,” Castille ended.