Seven professionals have submitted applications to become the new president of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. All seven are based outside of Louisiana, representing six different states and China.
The applicants are:
• James William Berry, Ph.D., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Peter Fos, Ph.D., D.D.S., Dean of the College of Health at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
• John Frederic Garmon, Ph.D., Chief Academic Officer at New Mexico State University at Carlsbad
• Valentine James, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Fayetteville State University, North Carolina
• Christopher Lu, Ph.D., Professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo
• James Mackin, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
• James Moy, Ph.D., Dean and Chair Professor of the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong
Full applications are available for the public to review in the UL Lafayette campus library and electronically on the UL System’s website, www.ulsystem.net.
The presidential search committee held its first meeting and public hearing June 14 on the UL Lafayette campus. Desired qualifications for a new president were compiled from public input at that meeting and through a special email, web comment form and phone line set up for the search. Those qualifications are also posted on the UL System’s website.
A special “You Tube” site, www.youtube.com/ulsystem, houses video clips of the entire June 14 meetings.
The next committee meeting and public hearing are scheduled for September 12 in Lafayette. Later in the year public candidate interviews are planned with the expectation of naming a new president by December.
Voting members on the presidential search committee are ULS Board members Paul Aucoin, Elsie Burkhalter, Robert Hale, Jeffrey Jenkins, Renee Lapeyrolerie, Jimmy Long, Sr., Wayne Parker, Olinda Ricard (student member), and Winfred Sibille, as well as UL Lafayette Faculty Senate representative John Meriwether.
Serving on the search committee in an advisory, non-voting capacity are community member and UL Lafayette Foundation representative James Prince and UL Lafayette Student Government Association President Candace Urbanowski. UL System President Sally Clausen serves as the committee chair.
President Ray Authement, the longest-standing public university president in the country at 33 years, announced April 27 he will retire from UL Lafayette.