Student newspaper editor sues LSU board

Andrea Gallo, editor-in-chief of The Daily Reveille, filed suit today against the LSU Board of Supervisors. At issue is the board’s refusal to release information about the candidates who applied to be LSU’s next system president/flagship chancellor, other than eventual selection F. King Alexander. The suit says “LSU’s duty to search for a president was effectively delegated to a private company to avoid the public scrutiny at the heart of the Louisiana Public Records Law,” and argues “the fact that otherwise public records are in the hands of a private entity does not make the records less public or less covered by the Public Records Law.” The board has argued that a public search might have kept well-qualified candidates from applying. Gallo’s suit, filed in Baton Rouge district court today, targets the LSU board and Hank Danos, in his capacity as board chairman, and seeks the names “of any and all applicants for the LSU System President/Chancellor position.”