Guice named new president of Louisiana Tech

Louisiana Tech University has a new president, chosen today by the governing board of the University of Louisiana System, who will officially take the leadership position in mid-2013. Leslie Guice, executive vice president of the university, will move up to the top job at the start of July, when longtime president Dan Reneau has retired. Guice has been at Louisiana Tech for 34 years, starting as an assistant professor of civil engineering. In addition to being executive vice president, he works as vice president for research and development at the Ruston school. He’s also an alumnus of the university. “We’re 100 percent sure we selected the right person, based on input from all the university stakeholders,” Wayne Parker, chairman of the UL System Board of Supervisors, says in a prepared statement. Guice was the sole finalist recommended by a presidential search committee. The panel based its decision on interviews with Guice and a second semifinalist, as well as on feedback from faculty, staff, students and community leaders who met with both candidates on Tech’s campus. Reneau announced in September that he would retire as the university’s 13th president at the end of June after 26 years in the position.