LSU picks search committee members to find its next president
LSU's Memorial Tower on Monday, March 20, 2023, on Tower Drive in Baton Rouge. (Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator)
A search committee has been assembled to find LSU's next president.
LSU is searching for a replacement for William Tate, who led both its Baton Rouge flagship campus and the LSU System that also includes medical schools in New Orleans and Shreveport, a New Orleans dental school and satellite institutions in Shreveport, Alexandria and Eunice. Tate departed Baton Rouge to become the leader of Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Earlier this year, two board members confirmed to the Illuminator there is ongoing discussion over whether LSU will hire a system president and a separate chancellor for the its main campus. The school's news release announcing search committee members did not indicate whether there would be a separate search for a chancellor. LSU combined the two roles in 2012.
Matt Lee, the dean of LSU's College of Agriculture, is serving as interim president.
LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Scott Ballard announced the following list of individuals have been appointed to the 2025 LSU Presidential Search Committee, including himself as a member:
Lee Mallett, LSU Board of Supervisors vice chairman
Valencia Sarpy Jones, LSU Board of Supervisors past chair
Rémy Voisin Starns, LSU Board of Supervisors past chair
James Williams, LSU Board of Supervisors past chair
John Carmouche, LSU Board of Supervisors
Blaise Zuschlag, LSU Board of Supervisors
Ben Bordelon, Bollinger Shipyards president and CEO
Clarence Cazalot, LSU Foundation Board of Directors
Paul Coreil, LSU Alexandria chancellor
Greg Feirn, LCMC Health CEO
E.J. Kuiper, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System president & CEO
Pete November, Ochsner Health CEO
Roger Odgen, LSU Foundation Board of Directors
Emily Otken, LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport student, former LSU Board of Supervisors student member
Kenneth Schafer, LSU Boyd professor and Ball Family distinguished professor
Ryan Theriot, Former LSU baseball player
Daniel Tirone, LSU A&M Faculty Senate president, associate professor
Bill Windham, Shreveport-Bossier businessman
Ballard told the Illuminator recently the board he predicts would work over the next six months or so to conduct a nationwide search for Tate's replacement.
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