Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
LSU is set to pick its 29th president today from a field of three: a Louisiana university president with a business background and two out-of-state candidates with lengthy academic records at large research institutions. The LSU Board of Supervisors is to choose among Wade Rousse, the president of McNeese State University, who some close to the search say has the inside track; James Dalton, the executive vice president and provost of the University of Alabama; and Dr. Robert Robbins, a former president of the University of Arizona. The three men have presented different visions of LSU’s future. Rousse has emphasized his significant business background, saying he aims to court companies to help fund research and institute metrics for success across the system. “This leader needs to be very politically savvy,” he told the LSU Presidential Search Committee last week. Dalton touted his “student-centric” approach, advocating for more support services to increase student graduation and success rates. “If we’re going to admit a student to LSU, we’ve got to do everything that we can to make sure that they’ve got a path out of here with a degree in their hand and a line on a job,” he said. Robbins said doubling LSU research funding was an “achievable goal,” saying he was able to achieve that during his time in Arizona. “You’ve got to have a leader that expects excellence, expects to be successful, expects for this place to grow,” he said. Research background The next president will replace former LSU President William Tate IV, who left earlier this year for Rutgers University. He touted his expansion of research activity at LSU, which translated into spending $540 million, most from federal grants, last academic year. That record amount was nearly $200 million higher than in 2020. Some political insiders say Rousse is Gov. Jeff Landry’s favored candidate for the job and has an inside track with the Board of Supervisors. The governor's office has declined to comment on the search. But some prominent LSU supporters have criticized Rousse’s credentials as head of a much smaller university and someone without a prominent research background. “Our president, Bill Tate, left LSU for Rutgers, the 41st ranked university in the country,” said James Carville, the Democratic political pundit who has undergraduate and law degrees from LSU and taught at the university for four years. “Landry wants to hire the president of McNeese, which is the 80th best regional university in the south.” Several LSU professors have pushed for a president with a strong academic background who understands the research process, saying that's crucial to attracting both money and top student and faculty talent. LSU Political Science Professor Belinda Davis, who spoke at last week's search committee meeting in her capacity as a parent of LSU students, said she was “gravely concerned” about Rousse. “I truly believe that Dr. Rousse’s lack of research experience will result in faculty attrition and difficulty in faculty recruitment,” she said. During his public search committee interview, Rousse was asked by Lee Mallett, the vice chair of both the LSU board and the search committee, about concerns that his academic background isn't deep enough. Rousse, who first joined McNeese as dean of the College of Business in 2019 and rose to become the president in July 2024, said he was "unapologetic" for it. “I don’t run away from my nontraditional path,” he said, comparing his role to that of a CEO moving between different companies. “I simply don’t agree with the fact that you have to come from the research channel to lead a research institution.” Mallett is close with the governor and has previously said he wanted someone from Louisiana. "I don’t understand why we have to think we have to bring someone from out of state," he said in an interview in September. "Then we have to teach them the culture and teach them the politics.” Board also set to review LSU organization The board will also discuss the LSU system’s organizational structure immediately following the presidential pick, according to the meeting agenda. It's unclear what changes are being considered, and officials with the Board of Supervisors couldn't be reached for comment Monday on the matter. But during the presidential search, one issue that surfaced during interviews with the board was whether to return to an administrative structure with separate president and chancellor positions. A chancellor used to oversee the Baton Rouge campus, while the president led the entire, eight-campus system until both roles were combined in 2012. Then-Gov. Bobby Jindal called for the consolidation, and board members said it would streamline the university's structure and make it more efficient. At the search committee interviews last week, the two out-of-state candidates — Dalton and Robbins — said they would discuss the structure with the board. Rousse, however, strongly advocated bringing back a chancellor position to the university. “We’ve got chancellors at all the other campuses,” he said. “I absolutely believe you’ve got to have a chancellor at A&M.” He argued the president's role should be about leading the system and focusing on the larger, statewide picture. "If we don't have a president of the system, I feel as though the natural tendency is for the head of each one of the campuses to work in their own self-interest," he said. Tyler Bridges contributed to this report.
