It was widely reported Tuesday that former University Chancellor Mark Emmert was courted for the LSU System president’s job currently held by William Jenkins. According to a report in The Seattle Times, the job could pay Emmert more than $1 million per year if he were to return to Baton Rouge, a raise of more than $200,000 from what he’s currently paid as president of the University of Washington. Unfortunately, Emmert is simply not worth that kind of money given his willingness to leave the University in May 2004 after only a five-year stay. “This was a very, very hard decision,” Emmert said in a May 7, 2004, article in The Daily Reveille. “My wife and I love it here. But the chance to lead your alma mater comes rarely, if ever at all.” If Emmert were to leave his alma mater for a $200,000 increase, who’s to say he wouldn’t leave LSU again if he received a better offer? These rumors started after Alvin Kimble, member of the Board of Supervisors, recently visited Emmert in Washington State. Kimble has stated the former chancellor has no interest in returning. Regardless, the University needs more continuity than Emmert is apparently willing to provide if it is ever to emerge from its “third-tier” status and achieve the goals of both the Flagship Agenda and the Capital Campaign, which seeks to raise a $750 million endowment by 2010. Those goals do not even take into account the troubles of the other nine campuses and 10 hospitals in the LSU System-most notably the University of New Orleans and the LSU Health Care Services Division, which have faced major monetary issues in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Furthermore, why can’t we follow Washington’s example when it hired Emmert and seek a prominent alumnus to lead the LSU System? No one would know the needs of this state and its most prominent university system better than a graduate. No matter who is ultimately hired, the LSU System needs to think to the future in its search for a new president not concentrate on relics of the past.
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