BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Six is now five. On Wednesday, six candidates were named as semi-finalists for the Southern University President-Chancellor position.
The semi-finalists are:
- Dr. Laurence Alexander- UAPB Chancellor
- Dr. James Ammons- SUNO Chancellor
- Dr. Walter Kimbrough- Dillard University President
- Dr. Dennis Shields- University of Wisconsin- Platteville Chancellor
- Dr. Kent Smith- Langston University President
- Dr. Michael Tidwell – Former President, University of Texas- Tyler
Later Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Tidwell, withdrew his application for the position.
Semi-finalists interviews will begin on January 18 and continue on January 19.
The finalists will be presented to the Southern University System Board, who will have the final vote on who the new President-Chancellor will be.
The Southern University President-Chancellor Search Committee has gone into executive session. By state law, no vote can be taken during the executive session.
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – The search committee in charge of finding Southern University’s next President-Chancellor will meet Wednesday afternoon.
According to the agenda of today’s meeting, the search committee could be selecting the semi-finalists for the position to replace Dr. Ray Belton.
Last July, Dr. Belton announced he would retire in the fall of 2022 after holding the role for the last seven years.
The search committee met in December but adjourned without naming the semi-finalists, altering the committee’s original timeline by a few weeks.
It was expected that finalists for the Southern University President-Chancellor position would be named in January. The search committee’s original timeline called for a new President-Chancellor to be selected by February.
The search committee meets Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m. and the meeting will be live-streamed here.