Click Here to watch Tim Ryan talk about Lombardi and UNO
Thirteen days after he was fired by the LSU System Board of Supervisors, former University of New Orleans Chancellor Tim Ryan doesn’t talk about much except his concern for UNO’s future.
 
The LSU System recently requested all System entities to prepare for an across-the-board 32-percent budget reduction, but Ryan said he’s not sure if UNO will get hit harder with LSU System President John Lombardi in charge.
 
Just weeks ago, Ryan was working to get UNO through the difficult budget crisis, partly stemming from the school’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina and partly from the current budget cuts to higher education from the state, and now he doesn’t have a job.
 
Due to what Ryan said was noncompliance with the System, Lombardi summoned Ryan to Baton Rouge and said the Board decided to fire him. Ryan said he would not allow UNO to be run as a branch campus of LSU.
 
“That was the last communication I had with John Lombardi, and it’s the last communication I want to have with John Lombardi for the rest of my life,” Ryan said in an interview with The Daily Reveille on Wednesday.
 
Ryan said Lombardi told him he would not notify the media until Ryan had held a news conference, but Lombardi sent out a news release about an hour before Ryan announced his firing to UNO.
 
“Dr. John Lombardi accepted Ryan’s resignation, noting Ryan’s long service to UNO that spanned many roles, ranging from faculty member to chancellor,” the System’s news release said.
 
After “accepting [his] resignation,” Ryan said Lombardi fired three of his close staff members for no reason. Lombardi then let it be known those weren’t the last of the firings, according to Ryan.
 
Lombardi was unavailable for an interview and did not comment on the situation except in the news release.
 
“People are very much afraid, and I think the community is very worried about the future,” Ryan said.
 
Now Lombardi has assumed administrative command of UNO with System Vice President for Student and Academic Support Services Michael Gargano and System Chief of Staff and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Technology Transfer Carolyn Hargrave. Ryan calls it the “unholy trinity” and “reign of terror at UNO.”
 
Ryan said Gargano told several administrators UNO was incorrectly serving its role as an urban university.
 
“He’s told me on several occasions … that we don’t know what our role is, that our role should be basically a four-year university, that we should just offer undergraduate programs,” Ryan said. “And we shouldn’t be involved in graduate education or research.”
 
With a direct System hand now at UNO, Ryan is unsure how influential that hand will be. He said talk of combining programs System-wide is an option Lombardi previously mentioned.
 
At the Faculty Senate-Chancellor Forum on Tuesday, LSU-Baton Rouge Chancellor Michael Martin said it would be more productive statewide to have fewer of the same degree programs competing with each other. He suggested creating “centers of excellence” to complement each other rather than compete.
 
For example, Ryan said UNO students could take LSU foreign language classes online, saving money by not offering the classes at UNO. He said the System staff could facilitate discussion about coordinating programs but has never done it.
 
Ryan said there’s been talk of making strategic cuts to target certain System entities, but it will be a difficult dilemma nonetheless.
 
Many UNO students and faculty have continually expressed their discontent with Lombardi.
 
UNO geography senior Dylan Barr told The Daily Reveille on Sept. 17 that Lombardi has shown for the past few years he does not care about UNO.
 
Ryan said faculty and administrators aren’t going to speak out or express discontent because Lombardi has made it clear he will fire people who don’t agree with him.
 
Ryan said System officials won’t admit to reading all UNO e-mails, but some students believe they are.
 
 
 
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Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]