LSU faculty senate votes ‘no confidence’ in board

LSU’s faculty leaders say they have no faith in the university system’s governing board to make wise decisions, and they question the credentials of the contender to be system president. LSU faculty senate President Kevin Cope says that the group approved a “vote of no confidence” in the LSU Board of Supervisors today. The vote comes as the board brings its contender for the president and chancellor’s job to Baton Rouge this week: F. King Alexander, president of California State University Long Beach. Among faculty complaints is the closed-door handling of the presidential search. The faculty senate also questions the recommendation that Alexander should be president, noting he’s never been a tenured full professor at a major research university and that graduation rates at his university are lower than those at LSU. However, LSU Board of Supervisors member Blake Chatelain, who chaired the presidential search committee, told Daily Report the secretive search process helped the committee identify the best candidate in Alexander—who has been receiving high praise from those on the LSU board, as well as from those he has worked with in California, since his selection Monday as the lone finalist for the job.