Piper Hutchinson | Louisiana Illuminator
LSU is just days away from picking its new leader after the committee in charge of finding a candidate narrowed down its choices from a list of five semifinalists. The three finalists do not include the administrator who has been running the university on an interim basis in recent months.
An LSU presidential search committee announced Wednesday it’s chosen McNeese State President Wade Rousse, University of Alabama Provost James Dalton and former University of Arizona President Robert Robbins as finalists for the position.
The three candidates will be invited for campus visits Thursday, Friday and Monday, when they’ll meet in public with faculty, staff and students. Private meetings with student representatives, campus leaders and athletics administrators are also planned.
Dalton’s campus visit will take place Thursday, with Robbins planned for Friday and Rousse on Monday.
The LSU Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesday to select a president from the three finalists.
It was considered a surprise the search committee did not name interim President Matt Lee one of the finalists. LSU Board Chairman Scott Ballard praised Lee in an interview after Wednesday’s meeting.
“I can’t tell you how much I think Matt Lee is deserving of everything good that happens to him,” Ballard said. “You know, the votes were not there for him. It’s hard to be the interim and going into the presidency.”
LSU Faculty Senate President Dan Tirone said Lee was favored by the faculty. Of the remaining candidates, Tirone said he believes the faculty would favor Dalton or Robbins for their experience running major research institutions.
Rousse is considered to be the frontrunner for the position, thanks to the backing of LSU Board Vice Chairman Lee Mallett, a major political donor to Gov. Jeff Landry. Members of the board serve at the pleasure of the governor, who also selects its chair.
During interviews, Mallett asked pointed questions to all five candidates, highlighting their weaknesses and allowing them an opportunity to respond.
In addition to Lee, the search committee also eliminated Tulane Vice President for Research Giovanni Piedimonte, who was previously a finalist for senior leadership positions at two other universities and was also eliminated from their pools.
Each candidate was asked about their strategies to place LSU among the nation’s top research universities, as well as their plans for student and faculty retention.
James Dalton
Dalton was added to the pool of candidates Wednesday. He had traveled to Louisiana and was included in the interviews, though some search committee members seemed unaware he had joined the field of semifinalists.
Dalton told the committee he had a “delay” in applying for the LSU position.
His background is in pharmacy and developing prescription drugs. He has been provost at Alabama since 2020 and previously worked at Michigan, Ohio State and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
Dalton said LSU should become a student-centric university, with smaller class sizes. One of his priorities would be to improve LSU’s retention rate for students after two years.
As an out-of-state candidate, Dalton said his first priority as president would be to get to know all 64 Louisiana parishes. He advocated for aligning the university’s priorities with those of Landry and the legislature.
Landry’s interest in LSU has been controversial, including calling for the firing of professors who have criticized him and advocating for the university to erect a statue of divisive conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed while speaking at a Utah university campus in September.
Robert Robbins
Robbins, a physician, left his leadership role at the University of Arizona in spring 2024 amid a significant budget crisis. A miscalculation of the amount of cash the school had on hand led to a $177 million deficit, from which it finally emerged this fall.
Robbins was criticized for accepting a $40,000 bonus after leaving office, despite being in charge while the university’s fiscal problems resulted in hundreds of layoffs.
Mallet asked Robbins about the fiscal mismanagement, and Robbins said there was no fraud or risk of insolvency at the university. A hiring freeze was implemented and other measures were taken to reduce costs to address the error, he said.
Tirone, LSU’s Faculty Senate president, said he called colleagues at the University of Arizona and confirmed Robbins’ version of events.
Robbins has several big names endorsing him for the position, including former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Mark Emmert, a former LSU chancellor and NCAA president.
Wade Rousse
Before becoming president, Rousse served in several administrative positions at McNeese State University since 2019.
Rousse touted his experience turning around McNeese’s enrollment and finances. His background is in economics, having attained a Ph.D. in the field from the University of Illinois Chicago.
Students and faculty who spoke at the search committee meeting noted Rousse’s lack of experience in research and leadership, as president of McNeese, a much smaller, non-research regional university for just over a year.
His critics also noted his perceived connections to the governor and that he lacks several of the key qualifications the search committee established for presidential applicants. Unlike LSU, McNeese does not hold a top research designation, and Rousse did not ascend to his administrative rank though the traditional academic promotion path. He also hasn’t published a significant amount of research..
Rousse addressed these concerns, defending his non-traditional background but assuring faculty they would have his full support.
When asked about his strategy to propel LSU to the top 50 public research universities in the country, Rousse questioned whether it was truly a priority for the university. He said he would meet with faculty everyday for 30 days after taking office to determine how important it is to them.
Rousse added he wanted to be given four or five key goals from the Board of Supervisors. If attaining top-research status was among them, he would put together a team to promote research.
He also said it is necessary to increase faculty and postdoctoral research pay to improve recruitment.
While Rousse said he would encourage philanthropic giving, he believes pursuing corporate partnerships will be key to funding the university.
“We’re not going to allow them to skew the purity of the research,” Rousse said. “That is not negotiable, but the idea that we need them to be a part of our curriculum, our research agenda, and truly create partnerships, true partnerships that we can maybe monetize together moving forward, I don’t think it’s negative.”