Two months after F. King Alexander stepped down as president of LSU, the Board of Supervisors announced this morning it plans to engage the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges to conduct a study on the leadership structure of LSU.
The study will revisit an issue AGB knows well: In 2012, the organization’s consultants did a study for the board that ultimately led to the decision to consolidate the LSU system presidency with the chancellorship of the flagship campus.
Alexander was the first to hold the joint position of president-chancellor.
Board Chair Mary Werner says before searching for a successor to replace Alexander, it’s important to revisit the leadership structure and determine whether it is still working well.
“The board wants to evaluate the success of the unified leadership structure over the past six years and consider if the structure is congruent with the university’s goals for the future,” Werner says in a prepared statement. “LSU is a mission-oriented, public entity operating under market forces with a $5.1 billion impact on the state, so it’s critical that the board be methodical and deliberate on decisions about leadership and structure.”
Since Alexander’s departure, there’s been much speculation about what the board would do with the position. Some board members and elected officials, including Gov. John Bel Edwards, have said they think the top leadership post should again be split into two positions.
Others, including prominent booster Richard Lisey, have argued the position should remain as one combined post.
AGB has named three consultants who will work on the new study. One of those consultants, senior fellow Rich Novak, was part of the AGB team who conducted the 2012 study.
Together, the three have led a significant number of consulting engagements and board development efforts for higher education systems, institutions and institutionally related foundations, LSU says.
Like the 2012 AGB study, the new one will include individual and group interviews with board members, administrators and stakeholders in Baton Rouge and Shreveport. Consultants will also examine several other public university systems to understand the perceived benefits of their administrative structures.
The study will begin in the next few weeks and will culminate in a presentation at the April 23 meeting of the Board of Supervisors.
Today’s announcement is the first official comment from the board on how it will handle the search for Alexander’s replacement. Earlier this year, Werner said she was hoping to conduct a national search, following a thorough evaluation of the leadership structure.
Read a story about the LSU leadership search here.
