LSU Shreveport Chancellor

This afternoon at the LSUS Planning Council meeting I announced that I will be retiring on 6/30/23. Being Chancellor at LSUS, since 2014, has been an incredible privilege and experience. I am grateful for the wonderful teamwork with my leadership team, faculty, staff and students- thank you. I will retire in good health and with wonderful memories from my times as chancellor and as a b-school dean at LSUS, Sonoma State University and UNC Wilmington. Best of all, I will remember the many amazing students that I have gotten to know, including Ms. Comfort Opoku, who in 2017 flew from her home in Ghana, Africa to Shreveport to walk the stage and receive her (online) MBA from us. My wife, Georgia, asked me this morning whether after June 30th I plan to still get up at 4:45 a.m. to walk our dog and then go out running. My response, most likely!

Yesterday was a great ceremony at LSU Health Shreveport whereby the final beam for their new Center for Medical Education building was raised into place. Interim Chancellor David Lewis and others spoke of the bold purposes of the building, including the new space for the Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats. The stories of collaboration and donor support, especially from Ochsner, were terrific. We all were very LSU/LSUHS proud! ,

Monday evening, LSUS and LSU (the system) co-hosted a Legislative Reception at the nearby Capitol apartment and grounds of Lt Governor Billy Nungesser (thank you, Sir). LSU BOS Chair Rémy Starns, President Bill Tate and other BOS Members and LSU leaders were present to help us welcome Gov. John Bel Edwards (thank you, Sir) and Louisiana legislators. We greatly appreciate the Fifteen of the Sixteen State Representatives and Senators of Northwest Louisiana who joined us- a terrific showing of support for LSUS. THANK YOU, All.

The baseball double header between the University of the Southwest and LSUS just began. The U.S. players were already in Louisiana when they learned of the tragic vehicle accident whereby six members of the U.S. golfing teams and their coach were killed. The U.S. players voted to play today. We had a moment of silence but we otherwise tried to allow them to focus on the game. Fortunately, local media and fans “got it” and followed suit. While we will continue to root for our Pilots, today we are all Mustangs.

For the first time since December, 2019, LSUS has returned to in-person ceremonies for our December, 2021 LSUS Commencement. Then we had 1,100 students walk with a packed arena. This year, we are doing four identical but separate ceremonies because of the pandemic to assure greater social distancing of graduates, faculty and guests. Our fourth and final ceremony begins in 90 minutes. Although there are far fewer people “in the house” per exercise, the Brookshire Center Arena has still rocked in our completed first three. Congrats to our graduates. Go Pilots!!

One of the fun traditions at LSU Shreveport is for students, staff and faculty to dress up for Halloween. Because I am today attending a LSU Board of Supervisors meeting, I walked around campus on Wednesday as The Riddler. Great fun.

Dr. Carlos Spaht, the founder/leader of LSUS LaPREP, today recognized graduates of this amazing summer program. LaPREP is primarily focused at minority K-12 students. It prepares graduates to effectively pursue a college degree program in math, science, or engineering (over the past 29 years, nearly 80% of the LaPREP graduates have done this). LaPREP is free to participants thanks to over $180K/year in support from donors, including AEP/SWEPCO, the Community Foundation of NWLA and the Grayson Foundation. Great day.

Because of very wet grounds from recent rain storms, the 2021 CenterPoint Energy Red River Balloon Rally was moved from the campus of LSU Shreveport to the Brookshire Grocery Arena this past week-end. The Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission team, led by Kelly Wells, did an amazing job to reset the Rally. Very prominent at the Rally was the LSUS balloon that was tethered for rides by Pat Harwell/team in support of the Bill Harwell Scholarships at LSUS. After being skipped last year because of the pandemic, he Balloon Rally was a particularly great celebration this year. LSUS hopes to again host the Rally next year.

Yesterday at the Shreveport Downtown Rotary Club, our Athletic Director, Lucas Morgan, and two of our student-athletes, Karolyn Hassler, from Arizona, and Brennan Maddox, from Southwest Louisiana, rocked the house in talking about Pilots sports. Over the last four years, LSUS teams have made 13 national tournament appearances and secured 12 conference championships. Our student-athletes had a 3.14 cumulative GPA this past year and logged hundreds of hours of community service. I could not be prouder of our Pilots AD, coaches and student-athletes. Go Pilots!

Grambling State University President Rick Gallot came to LSUS today to learn more about the transformation of our campus and to discuss possible collaboration opportunities. In turn, I plan to visit GSU in the near future. One of our necessary stops on campus, the incredible Noel Collection for a short overview from Curator Alex Mikaberidze.

Yesterday afternoon I informed the LSUS community of the passing of Dr. Alfred (Al) McKinney, the highly-respected and loved Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, due to COVID-19. Messages being exchanged today uniformly speak of what a great, humble individual Al McKinney was, especially for his students. What follows is the ending of Al’s last email message to the campus just prior to the start of the fall semester. “I wish everyone well with the start of school. It seems strange but I don’t plan to answer the bell. I plan to ride off into the sunset like John Wayne.” In so many ways, Al was our John Wayne at LSU Shreveport. We will miss you, Al. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his beloved wife, Mary Jo McKinney, and family.

To LSUS May, 2020 Graduates. Right about now we would have been calling you to come forward to be recognized in our May, 2020 Commencement Exercise. We regret that this is not happening today. You graduates have had to persevere through some incredibly challenging times this spring to get to this point. You have our fullest respect and appreciation from all of us at LSUS. A personal shout out to one LSUS graduate today- Susan Gray. Congratulations to all of you LSUS graduates. Go Pilots!!!