With about 120 days on the job under his belt as president of the Southern University System and chancellor of the Baton Rouge campus, Ray Belton has started working on a strategic plan that could result in the elimination of certain academic programs or departments within the historically black college system. The plan also will focus on creating centers of excellence at each campus—niche or specialty areas where the Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport campuses can focus their resources.
“We will be looking at doing assessments (of all our programs) to make sure we make strategic investments on all of our campuses going forth,” Belton said following a lunchtime address to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge today. “I think the universities have to make an assessment, and we will.”
Belton could not say how many programs might be targeted. Those decisions will come after the assessments are completed. But first, Belton has to finish his strategic plan, which he hopes to do by the end of the year.
“The plan will focus on establishing centers of excellence that align with workforce demands of the state at each campus,” he said. “It will also focus on building and ensuring that we have infrastructure to support adult learners and at-risk students, having a robust presence in our community, and on helping leverage relationships and partnerships that would provide some type of impetus in terms of economic development.”
Belton is the first leader of the Southern University system to hold the joint title of system president and chancellor of the flagship campus. The position was created earlier this year and models the joint president/chancellor position LSU created in 2013 with the hiring of F. King Alexander.
Sorting through the bureaucracy of wearing two hats has taken up most of Belton’s time in his first few months on the job. But in September he hired a new provost and vice president for academic affairs, which has freed him up to focus on planning and long-term goals.
Belton told the Rotarians he wants the Southern system to partner more effectively with business and industry. He also said Southern needs to do a better job tooting its own horn.
“Nobody knows about all that we do, and we have to do a better job of telling our story,” he said. “I think we need to do a better job of engaging with business. We’re a public institution. Our purpose is to serve the state.”
—Stephanie Riegel
