
LSU President William Tate is heading to the Garden State.
Tate has announced that he is leaving his post to become the new president at Rutgers University.
“It’s been rumored for several weeks around the university that Tate was soon to depart,” says Piper Hutchinson, a reporter for Louisiana Illuminator. “And now we have our confirmation that that is, in fact, true.”
Tate has been president of the LSU system and the head of the flagship Baton Rouge campus since July 1, 2021.
Hutchinson says Tate’s relationship with state government took a turn for the worse with the change in gubernatorial administrations.
“After Gov. Landry took office last year, I would say that things became more tense between Tate and the government,” says Hutchinson, “especially as Gov. Landry put more people on the board of supervisors who were very interested in running the university in a specific way.”
Hutchinson says it’s possible that Tate felt that he was being pushed out of his role.
“There had been chatter for a long time about a list that was circulating of administrators that people wanted purged,” Hutchinson says. “And it was rumored that Tate was on that list.”
There may also be a more troubling trend in play.
“Tate is the third high profile Black administrator at LSU to leave his job abruptly this year alone,” says Hutchinson. “And Tate was the first Black president anywhere in the SEC.”
Tate’s departure scheduled for June 30; and the following day, Matt Lee, the vice president for agriculture and the dean of the College of Agriculture at LSU, will serve as interim president.
LSU, in the meantime, is now searching for a new president.
“People start to say like maybe Jim Henderson will apply for the job again,” Hutchinson says. “They’re probably be candidates from outside the state. I think it’s unlikely that Jay Darden applies for the job again.”
And it may take more than one job to fill the vacancy left by Tate.
“There’s also talk right now of splitting the president and the chancellor roles,” says Hutchinson, “so we might have a new president and a new chancellor soon.”
During Tate’s four years at LSU, campuses in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport achieved a record-breaking $543 million in combined research activity, part of his goal to make LSU a top 50 research university.
More than 55,000 students enrolled across all campuses, and the system achieved record-breaking graduation rates.
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