Long time SU Law Center chancellor accepts ambassadorship

Bhishma K. Agnihotri, chancellor of the Southern University Law Center, resigned to become the ambassador-at-large for the Indian government based in New York, ending his 27-year-long tenure as Chancellor.
Leon Tarver, president of the Southern University System, named vice-chancellor Arthur Stallworth as interim chancellor while the Board of Supervisors searches for a permanent replacement.
Agnihotri announced his resignation Friday, September 14, at a convocation held for the victims of the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters.
The former chancellor has worked at Southern since 1968. He came to the United States in 1966 from New Delhi, where he served as the youngest trial justice in India.
Agnihotri came to Southern University’s Law School following the advice of civil rights advocate Martin Luther King Jr.
“If you’re going to stay in America, go down South, that’s where the action is,” said Agnihotri of his talk with King.
Agnihotri met King at the University of California-Berkeley, where he was a research associate, and decided to stay in the United States.
With pressures from the American Bar Association and the local courts to close down, the law school was constantly watched, said Agnihotri. Today the law center is home to a diverse student population including, the Governor of Louisiana Mike Foster and a former Miss Louisiana Faith Jenkins.
When Agnihotri first arrived, he was given a professorship and later appointed to Dean of the Law School.
Designated by the Southern University Board of Supervisors in 1985, the law school became the Southern University Law Center, and Agnihotri was given the chancellorship. The chancellor touched on many of these events and honors during his speech to the congregation assembled for the convocation.
Kemic Smothers, president of the law school’s Student Bar Association, presided as master of ceremonies. Tarver gave the chancellor his best wishes and formally accepted his resignation.
Agnihotri flew to New York last Monday for meetings related to the terrorist attacks, but plans to make frequent trips back to the law center.
“This is my family, this is my life, and my home is still here,” said Agnihotri.
In the future Agnihotri hopes to return to the law center not only to visit, but also to teach as a professor of law.
Preceding the resignation, Smothers led the students, faculty, and staff present in a moment of silence, accompanied by a song and prayer by two other law students.
During his employment at the SU Law Center, Agnihotri received numerous awards and honors including the Israel Peace Medal for Services to Human and Civil Rights, the NAACP-Louisiana Chapter Civil Rights Award, Man of the Year by the Ethic Media of the United States of America, and the 2001 YMCA Racial Justice Award.
 
FACTS/HISTORY OF THE SU LAW CENTER
Time Line
* 1947 – September, The Southern University Law School was officially opened.
* 1968 – Agnihotri hired as a faculty member at Southern University Law School.
* 1971 – Agnihotri becomes Associate Dean.
* 1974 – Agnihotri becomes Dean.
* 1985 – July 1, The Southern University Board of Supervisor designated the law school as the Southern University Law Center.
* 1985 – Agnihotri becomes Chancellor of the Southern University Law Center.
* 1997 – The Law Center Celebrated 50 years of service.
* 2001 – Agnihotri resigns as Chancellor and Accepts Ambassadorship.
* 2001 – Vice-chancellor Arthur Stallworth placed as interim chancellor.
Facts on the Southern University Law School
* The Law Center is fully accredited by the American Bar Association, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana
* Has the Number one team in the Intra-State Mock Trial Competition.
* A.A. Lenior Hall, named for the first dean of the School of Law, The Law Center consists of administrative and faculty offices, classrooms, law library and a moot court.
* The Law Center occupies 80,000 square feet including a 30,000 square foot library, study areas, and faculty and student lounges.
* Students have successfully represented clients in courts ranging from city courts to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
* More than 52 of Louisiana’s black judges and more than 85 percent of the black attorneys in the state have been educated at the Southern University Law Center.
* The Southern University Law Center is third among institutions awarding law degrees to African Americans.
* First among accredited law schools in the country for women-friendliness.
* The Southern University Law Center’s law library was ranked the number one law library in the state and 37th in the Nation by “The National Jurist Magazine” November-December 2000.