Baton Rouge bound: M. Christopher Brown II was selected today as the Southern University System’s new executive vice president of academic affairs and provost. Brown has more than 10 years of experience in higher education administration, including serving as president of Alcorn State University in Mississippi and as executive vice president and provost at Fisk University in Tennessee. He is currently a senior fellow at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. Southern has more details on Brown’s appointment.
On the dotted line: LSU First Choice Health Plan members can now access medical services from Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center and Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group, OLOL announced today. Under the new agreement, members will be able to access services at OLOL facilities, as well as affiliated facilities including Our Lady of the Lake Livingston, Lake After Hours and LSU Health Baton Rouge. Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa and its physician group are also included in the agreement. As a result, OLOL says more than 5,700 enrollees in the LSU plan across the Baton Rouge and Bogalusa regions will have increased access to premier health care services.
Holding steady: With 70 rigs actively exploring or oil or gas in Louisiana this week, the state’s rig count was unchanged from a week ago, according to the latest tally by Houston-based oilfield services firm Baker Hughes Inc. The firm says the number of active rigs in the U.S. this week declined by four to 838. Of them, 640 rigs were seeking oil, 197 explored for natural gas and one was listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, with oil prices about double the prices now, 1,931 rigs were active. Among major oil- and gas-producing states, New Mexico gained one rig. Texas lost two rigs in this week’s tally, while Arkansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma each lost one rig. The rig counts for Alaska, California, Colorado, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming were also unchanged. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
