SU chancellor says reorganization goes on, despite lawsuit threat

Southern University Chancellor James Llorens says he’s had support from some faculty members about the decision to declare financial exigency and begin reorganizing the institution, and says the possibility of a lawsuit to challenge the declaration from faculty senate leadership has no effect on that process. “Our responsibility is to move forward,” Llorens says. “We believe we have done everything that’s required of us. We believe we’ve built the case for exigency.” The declaration, granted by the system’s Board of Supervisors Oct. 28, allows campus leadership to lay off tenured faculty. According to The Southern Digest, faculty senate President Sudhir Trivedi met with lawyers Friday, including Jill Craft—who represented former system President Ralph Slaughter in his suit against the school’s governing board—and Paul Bell. “We are looking forward to reversing financial exigency,” Trivedi told the student newspaper. But Llorens says there is some enthusiasm among some faculty, staff and alumni to begin the reorganization process, work together and get it over with. Llorens stresses the campus is not bankrupt, and that its academic accreditation is not at risk. The declaration allows campus leadership to make strategic decisions about which programs must be protected and which can be cut or merged, he says. —David Jacobs