Coastal scientist Ivor van Heerden wasn’t fired from the Hurricane Center, but his position was eliminated along with all the other employees in the center when Director Marc Levitan resigned, University officials told The Daily Reveille on Wednesday.The University notified van Heerden on April 9 that his contract in the Department of Engineering wouldn’t be renewed, but he didn’t realize his position as Hurricane Center deputy director also ended.”We haven’t fired anybody,” said Office of Research and Economic Development Associate Vice Chancellor Robert Twilley.When Levitan acknowledged he was stepping down, his staff underneath him was let go, Twilley said.Levitan said he was forced to step down, and he wanted to continue working with the center.”The University, about seven weeks [ago], asked me to step down as director,” Levitan said on Monday. “They indicated it was time for some changes.”However, Levitan said he did not know if the University’s pressure was related to van Heerden because, during a private meeting, administrators did not mention van Heerden.Levitan and van Heerden had led the Hurricane Center since it opened 10 years ago.Van Heerden said last week he was fired because of his criticism to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for poor levee structure in New Orleans and because the University wanted to receive more federal grants. The University is restructuring the Hurricane Center, and one of its main goals will be to work with FEMA to receive grants for research about the five levee parishes, according to the Office of Research and Economic Development officials. The Corps was responsible for building the levees.  The Hurricane Center and all other research centers on campus answer directly to the Vice Chancellor of the Office of Research and Economic Development Brooks Keel, but the appointment of directors is decided by the department in which professors are tenured, Twilley said. In Levitan’s case, he was accountable to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.Twilley’s only response toward Levitan’s allegation was the Office of Research and Economic Development received Levitan’s resignation and accepted it.”It’s the department that makes all decisions about personnel,” Twilley said, explaining the office of research evaluates the success of the center itself and not the individuals within the centers.Keel declined to comment about Levitan but referred The Daily Reveille to University Media Relations, which said last week, along with the Department of Civil Engineering, it couldn’t comment on the matter.”[We] have reorganized that center under Robert Twilley,” Keel said. “Its mission is much broader than just hurricanes.”After Levitan stepped down, Keel said he appointed Joseph Suhayda, former retired coastal science professor, as interim director of the Hurricane Center.The Office of Research and Economic Development chose Suhayda because he was qualified for the job and was part of the development of the Hurricane Center originally, Twilley said.The center will temporarily be moved from the College of Engineering office in Patrick F. Taylor Hall to the Energy, Coast and Environment building, Twilley said. The change is just a physical move in office space, because the center has always answered to the research office, he explained.The research office wants to shape the Hurricane Center to better serve the state and the University by including more departments than civil and environmental engineering, Keel said. He mentioned including coastal science, business and law faculty to work with the center.Faculty members are responsible for gathering the grants with agencies to provide money for the centers, Twilley said. The Hurricane Center doesn’t generate its own money, but the faculty make connections and then secure grants, he said.Some of the new goals for the Hurricane Center include collaborating with the Governor’s office to provide it with data during storms, Twilley said. Another goal for the center is to work with FEMA, which is responsible for developing data that identifies the flood zones through Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps.”LSU is responsible to help the federal government with the quality of the maps,” Twilley said.The maps will research flood risk data for the five levee parishes, according to FEMA’s Web site. The University is working with Homeland Security Department to receive a grant to fund the research with the Governor’s office, Twilley said.But according to van Heerden, the University purposefully tried to take the Hurricane Center from Levitan and himself. Van Heerden said one of the main reasons the University is reorganizing the center is to receive more federal funding. He also said Hurricane Center faculty members ran all grants through the College of Engineering, and they enjoyed the benefits from the grants. He said they earned about $1 million a year.Levitan and van Heerden together secured $67,245 in February and MMI Engineering Inc. was one of the main grant supporters, according to the office of Sponsored Program Accounting’s monthly report. And while protests in New Orleans with Levees.org and van Heerden have said the University is sacrificing public safety to receive more funding, the office of research officials said otherwise.The long-term goal of the Office of Research and Economic Development with the Hurricane Center is to deal with public safety, Twilley said. The center hopes to work with both state and federal agencies through partnerships and funding, he said.”Our mission as a university [is] to provide research tools that gives them a better tool to do their job,” he said.—-Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]