The LSU System Board of Supervisors voted Friday to terminate President John Lombardi.
Lombardi, who was not present at the meeting, has been head of the LSU System since 2007.
Former System President Bill Jenkins will fill in as interim president until Lombardi’s successor is appointed. Board Chairman Hank Danos was authorized to make official decisions for the board until Jenkins takes office.
Jenkin’s biography replaced Lombardi’s on the LSU System website shortly following the meeting’s close.
Lombardi will be placed on leave but will be paid his base salary of $450,000 because his contract doesn’t end until Jan. 1. When Lombardi was appointed, he was given a tenured professorship in the University’s History Department and will keep his faculty status and salary despite being on leave.
Chancellor Michael Martin attended the meeting but declined to comment on the results of the vote.
Kevin Cope and Sudhir Trivedi, LSU and Southern University Faculty Senate presidents, respectively, both approached the Bb and urged members to rethink how they planned to vote.
Cope said he was uncomfortable with the vote because it was added to the meeting’s agenda Thursday, just one day before the meeting. According to the LSU System website, submissions for April’s agenda items were due March 27.
“If they really thought it was a virtuous cause, they wouldn’t have needed to surprise everyone with it,” he said.
Cope said he’s worried about how the situation might make Louisiana look to other institutions across the country.
“The rest of the world regards this as a coup d’état or a banana republic situation. I think it’s dishonest, and it’s inconsistent with the values of this University,” Cope said. “I think with this, we’ve seen that Louisiana is still living, not only in the Huey Long era, but in the Stone Age.”
Trivedi encouraged board members to think for themselves and eschew any pressure being put on them by Gov. Bobby Jindal, who appoints members of the Board of Supervisors.
“This is the challenge before you. Are you going to do the right thing or are you just going to prove you’re a puppet for Jindal?” he asked.
After a motion was made, the issue was open for discussion, during which time several board members spoke in support of Lombardi or in support of his termination.
Board member Alvin Kimble said he was upset by the decision because he believes Jindal pressured many of the members to
fire Lombardi.
“It’s time to call a buck a buck,” he said. “You’re doing what you’ve been instructed to do. You need to step up and say that’s what the hell’s going on.”
Board member Tony Falterman said he was worried about how the shake-up would affect the System in the long run.
Falterman said Danos called him Thursday night to tell him Lombardi would be fired at the meeting.
“You told him to resign or you’d fire him. You knew you had the votes,” he said to Danos at Friday’s meeting. “How did you know? If polled, you’re in violation of open meeting laws. I’m not accusing you, but I’d like to know how you knew you had the votes.”
Danos did not respond directly to Falterman’s questions.
Board member Stephen Perry said he knew many of the other members had an issue with Lombardi from conversations he’s had with them in the past.
“You ask why would we not wait. We’re at a critical juncture at right now,” he said. “A growing number of members began to express outwardly to each other that they’re really worried about where we are right now.”
After more than 30 minutes of impassioned discussion and debate, the motion to terminate Lombardi passed, 12-4. Danos said Lombardi’s termination was in the best interest of the System.
“Some of us believe our current leader has not assisted us in reaching full potential,” he said. “We’ve seen finger pointing and blame, but we haven’t seen the leadership
we needed.”
He said the vote was brought up so suddenly because he and other board members felt a sense of “urgency” and thought it was necessary to get a new president in office as quickly as possible.
“We knew it was something we should address very soon,” Dawes said. “We didn’t want to see the System fall further behind. We have some ground to make up and some relationships to rebuild.”
Danos said the search for a new president could take six to
nine months.
 
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Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected]