At a special meeting earlier this month, the LSU Board of Supervisors met for more than two-and-a-half hours behind closed doors to discuss—according to the meeting agenda—the performance of interim president and law center chancellor Tom Galligan, who’s been pulling double duty since former President F. King Alexander stepped down earlier this year.
But the board also apparently discussed at length the future of the university’s leadership structure while out of the public’s earshot.
After emerging from the marathon executive session, the board voted to positively affirm Galligan’s successful performance. Then, board member Jay Blossman stated that he would like the board to “commit to concluding the deliberations on the future of the leadership structure by the end of the year.”
Then-board chair Mary Werner, who has since turned the gavel over to Robert Dampf, noted Blossman’s comment for the record, though the board did not commit to wrapping up its deliberations on the leadership structure by then.
Why the deliberations have been going on in private is unclear. What is known is that the LSU board does not typically disagree over controversial matters in public and there is still disagreement on the future of the leadership structure among board members, nearly 10 months after the issue first surfaced.
Some board members are interested in splitting the position into two roles—a president of the LSU System and a chancellor of the LSU A&M campus, which is how the university’s leadership was structured until Alexander’s hiring in 2013.
Others fear a split in the leadership would set the university back and rebuild silos that have broken down among LSU’s various institutions in recent years.
Further complicating matters is that Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has said he favors splitting the positions, appointed several new members to the board in July, changing the dynamics of the group.
Board members are remaining tight lipped about their positions on the matter. What they will say is that until they figure out which direction they want to go, they will not launch a search—national or otherwise—for someone to fill the university’s top position on a permanent basis.
“We are all trying to figure out what we think would work best for LSU,” Dampf says. “We are trying to make the structure decision and then hire to fill that job description.”
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