Ivor van Heerden was told April 9 his contract wouldn’t be renewed as a research professor, and days later said he heard through the media his position at the Hurricane Center was eliminated.But the outspoken coastal scientist who led the state’s investigation on the levees in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina has continued to criticize the University for firing him — believing their decision was related to his outspokenness.”They didn’t tell me why,” van Heerden said. “The letter said, ‘This is to advise you, your contract expires May ’09 and won’t be renewed in May 2010.'”University officials could not legally comment on their decision.But van Heerden believes the University’s decision was in response to years of speaking against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ poor construction of the levees in New Orleans while the University is trying to receive more federal funding for the Hurricane Center.But van Heerden told The Daily Reveille he is speaking with people in Washington, D.C. about the University’s actions. “There is a very high probability that a Louisiana Hurricane Center will be set up at another University in the state,” van Heerden said in an e-mail.Along with van Heerden, Marc Levitan stepped down as director of the Hurricane Center.Levitan said the Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development Brooks Keel, who the Center answers to, called him into a one-on-one meeting where Keel asked him to step down as head of the center.Last week, Keel said he wouldn’t comment on Levitan’s decision.But Keel and Office of Research and Economic Development Associate Vice Chancellor Robert Twilley say Levitan resigned, and the Hurricane Center was restructured to include more projects and incorporate more departments at the University.One new project includes the newly constructed center working with FEMA on a project about digital flood insurance risk maps that identify flood zones across the nation, Twilley said.FEMA announced in a February news release one of the preliminary maps has information for the five levee parishes: Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemine, St. Bernard and St. Charles.Twilley did not identify which maps the Hurricane Center would assist the federal government in creating, but he did say they are trying to receive federal funds for the project.”LSU’s responsible to help the federal government with the quality of the maps,” Twilley said.All research centers in the Office of Research and Economic Development, including the Hurricane Center, have to generate their own funds, Twilley explained. Faculty members are responsible for gathering the grants with agencies to provide money for the centers.In response to The Daily Reveille’s request asking how much money the Hurricane Center has generated in the past, Keel said in an e-mail, “credits for grants are not attributable directly to the Hurricane Center but to each faculty member’s department.””There is currently no way to determine which grants awarded to individual faculty members should be credited to the Hurricane Center,” Keel said.Levitan and van Heerden together secured $67,245 in February for grants related to hurricane research, and MMI Engineering Inc. was one of the main grant supporters, according to the office of Sponsored Program Accounting’s monthly report.In response to the University’s decision, one New-Orleans-based group lead a protest April 16 outside the LSU Health Science Center in New Orleans.”This is a sad say for the citizens of south Louisiana because they have lost their only independent, expert voice on hurricane and flooding issues,” Levees.org Founder Sandy Rosenthal said at the rally.Levees.org has continued its effort to protest the University’s decision.The organization has asked members to sign the petition to Chancellor Michael Martin, call LSU System President John Lombardi and send a letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal asking them to reconsider the decision.More than 500 letters were sent to the governor, and more than 3,000 people had signed the petition to Martin by April 30.——Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]