LSU’s Student Body President Anna Catherine Strong didn’t give her signature to a resolution that honors a professor who announced he would step down from the university after Jeff Landry’s election as governor earlier this month, citing its “political language.”
It’s the second time Strong has refused to approve a resolution critical of the Republican attorney general. The first resolution condemned Landry for skipping a September gubernatorial forum on campus to attend a campaign event with Donald Trump Jr., which Strong vetoed but the Student Senate overruled.
This motion also passes without her approval; if a student body president takes no action on a resolution rubber stamped by the legislative branch, it goes into effect automatically after a few days. The Senate passed the motion unanimously on Wednesday.
The resolution came after LSU professor Robert Mann announced he would step down from the university in the spring following Landry’s outright win in the state’s gubernatorial primary on Oct. 14.
In 2021, Landry called for the university to punish Mann after the professor called one of his employees a “flunkie” in a tweet. Earlier that day, Landry had sent an assistant attorney general to a Faculty Senate meeting to voice his opposition to a resolution, authored by Mann and others, that called for weekly testing of unvaccinated students and asked the university to update its vaccine exemption procedure.
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Mann said he was disappointed in a lack of support from university leaders at the time — and that he didn’t expect stronger backing from them under Landry’s governorship.
“My reasons are simple: The person who will be governor in January has already asked LSU to fire me,” Mann said in his recent tweet. “And I have no confidence the leadership of this university would protect the Manship School against a governor’s efforts to punish me and other faculty members.”
The Student Senate resolution, authored by Sen. Corbitt Driskell, who represents the E. J. Ourso College of Business, thanks Mann for his 17 years at the university and expresses “strong support in Professor Mann’s fight for academic freedoms, even if it means going against a tumultuous state government or non-supportive leadership.”
“Professor Mann has made a brave step in removing himself from the University in an attempt to remove the distractions of Governor-elect Landry’s hatred and vendetta for the Professor away from LSU and its students,” the resolution reads. “…Mann has released information showing both his lack of support from the University along with showing how other members of the academic community in Louisiana feel the same lack of freedoms.”
The resolution was sent to Mann, Landry and LSU President William F. Tate IV. Driskell said the Senate did this “to show them that the student body is picking up on these things.” He said he’s worried by attacks on academic freedom around the country.
Strong said she didn’t sign this resolution for similar reasons she vetoed the last Landry-related motion — because of its political nature.
“I didn’t sign that version just because I felt like the political language used in the past was still being subtly worked in,” Strong said, “and I also am waiting to see if the senate passes a new version that highlights more of Bob Mann’s work as a professor, especially with his research.”
Strong said she still allowed the motion to pass through because she “wanted to make sure Professor Mann received some sort of commendation for his work.” She said Mann has been an “incredible resource for the university, and he will be missed greatly.”
Driskell said he thinks the Senate, which ultimately represents the student body, is within its right to take political stances, though he noted he “completely” understands Strong’s decision, citing the fact that she works closely with the university administration.
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Louisiana Gov.-elect Jeff Landry speaks to reporters on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, during a press conference in Lafayette, La.
