When former LSU Board of Supervisors Chair Mary Leach Warner asked Tom Galligan to step in as interim president, she said his tenure would run from six to nine months. 

Eighteen tumultuous months later, Galligan will return to his classroom in the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, and LSU will transition to a new president, William Tate IV. He’ll lead a university reeling from a massive Title IX scandal, a nationwide reckoning on race and a pandemic that shut down campus and killed nearly 11,000 Louisianans. 

Galligan said he wasn’t expecting the board to offer him the position in late 2019. He took the job quickly and eagerly, blissfully unaware of the challenges that laid ahead. 

Student leaders expressed gratitude to and sympathy for Galligan. He is a good man and a compassionate leader, they said, who was ultimately bound by a lawyerly decorum, a powerful athletic department and the constant reminder that his reign was only temporary. During a year in which students cried for protection — from a virus, from racism, from a malignant Title IX office — Galligan could promise only so much. He was a placeholder, not a power broker.

Invigorated by the challenges of the office, unswayed by the chaos, Galligan announced in October 2020 his plans to run for the permanent position. He “got the bug,” as he put it. 

“I’d love to see this COVID thing through, the conversation we’re having about diversity and inclusiveness, I want to be a part of that,” Galligan told The Advocate.

Not even a month later, USA Today published a bombshell report, detailing LSU’s systemic Title IX indifference. Galligan would spend the next few months answering for cover-ups and failures that happened on his predecessor’s watch. 

When the dust settled, Galligan flew up to New Hampshire to spend time with his children and his 14-month-old grandson, born around the onset of the pandemic. He hadn’t seen his family since his grandchild was only a week old. As he held the toddler, he mulled his future with the university and LSU’s ongoing presidential search. It was a cherished time for a family that suffered tragedy in August 2019, when Galligan’s middle daughter, Aisling, died from an aggressive cancer. 

Only a few weeks later — amid concerns his run posed a conflict of interest as he tried to clean up the scandal’s mess — Galligan dropped out of the presidential race. Perhaps the Title IX scandal was what squashed “the bug.” Or perhaps it was a fresh outlook on life, left in the pandemic’s retreat, that did it in. Either way, Galligan’s tenure as president would mercilessly conclude to a standing ovation at an LSU Alexandria board meeting. 

The board bestowed upon Galligan a new title: president emeritus. The new-old law professor accepted it gracefully and welcomed Tate to LSU.

“There’s no one more excited for him to be president than me,” Galligan said.

COVID-19

Galligan became president two months before the university would shut down on March 12 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He would oversee the initial transition from in-person learning to virtual education during the 2020 Spring semester.

During the summer prior to the start of the 2020 Fall semester, the university committed to reopening campus in some capacity, but Galligan stressed that student’s safety would be the foremost priority. 

“We need to get back to business, but we need to get back to business safely.” Galligan said last year to the press. “We will do everything we can to get back to campus, to get back to school and to do so safely.” 

On July 14, Galligan welcomed Vice President Mike Pence to Tiger Stadium. Pence, alongside Gov. John Bel Edwards and senator John Kennedy, stressed the importance of finding safe ways to reopen schools for the fall and play the football season.

“As Coach O and I discussed today, I think it’s important not just for the student athletes, not just for schools like LSU, but it’s important for America,” Pence said.

This mostly virtual education would carry on into the 2020-2021 academic school year, with a majority of students obtaining a large percentage of their education virtually. Football would be played in front of sparse crowds. Several LSU games, as well as countless across the country, would be shuffled around to circumvent virus outbreaks among players. 

Numerous COVID-19 testing centers were implemented across campus,  students were required to fill out a daily symptom tracker, and the university made the unpopular decision to cancel spring break.  

A year later, a return to a sense of normalcy has crept back onto campus. The availability of vaccinations for the public has revealed an end to the pandemic. The faculty council convened for the first time since 2005 to demand the university mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, but Galligan and the board of supervisors stopped short of joining the roughly 100 universities across the country to mandate the vaccine. Instead, they urged the state to add it to the required immunization list. 

Protest

A Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd  on May 25, 2020, igniting the largest resurgence in the Civil Rights movement in 50 years. The protests and renewed discussions on race in America made their way to LSU throughout the summer.

Galligan joined students in several protests across campus. During his tenure, Troy H. Middleton’s name was taken off the library, the African and African American Studies program (AAAS) was promoted to a department, a move AAAS faculty had requested for 20 years, and LSU welcomed yet again the most diverse freshman class in school history. The Black Student Athletes Association was formed, and students are still calling for more Black faculty and more Black mental health counselors. 

In early June, Galligan joined students in a Blackout LSU protest on campus. A few days later, a video surfaced on social media of an incoming freshman named Drew Dollar loudly shouting, “I hate n******.” LSU came under fire for saying it could not restrict the student’s right to free speech. Many in the LSU community said the university should have instead cited its policy on harassment and hate speech, citing the Student Code of Conduct for reference.

A week later, LSU removed the name of Middleton, former university president and devout segregationist.  Some students applauded the move, but questioned its sincerity after pointing out the other dozen buildings on campus named after confederates, slaveholders and segregationists. 

“My problem is [Galligan] mainly calmed the flames instead of putting out the fire, which describes his entire presidency at LSU,” Exquisite Williams, one student who led the charge to remove the Middleton name, said. “He handled it better than other presidents in the past though.”

The school formed a committee to evaluate the other names. It expects to complete its research by September 2021. 

“Tom Galligan is a really great guy to talk to,” said Devin Scott, SG Director of Diversity. “He’s always open and willing to meet with students. He and I have had lunch a couple of times, and he’s just been really transparent with me about anything the whole time.”

“It’s not like we agree on everything,” Scott said, “but I just think [Galligan] is a great advocate for students and student interests.”

Soon after the fall semester began, a police officer shot a man named Jacob Black in Kenosha, Wisc, leading to more protests, especially among athletes. The whole LSU football team walked out of practice and marched across campus through the rain to Galligan’s office. There, they met with the interim president, Ed Orgeron and Scott Woodward.

“I’m 64,” Galligan said. “This has been happening my entire life. And every time I think it gets better, it happens again. We’re here because it’s got to stop. We’ve got to do something about it.”

Title IX

Controversy erupted for the university when in November USA Today released a report detailing the many failures of the university’s Title IX practices, and Galligan was at the forefront of addressing the situation. The ensuing criticism swiftly prompted the university to hire law firm Husch Blackwell to investigate the university’s failures to address sexual assault allegations and the continued mishandling of Title IX cases.

“The president’s office under Tom Galligan’s leadership did take us very seriously, was willing to have multiple meetings with us to discuss different things,” said student leader Mia LeJeune.“He was so keen on listening to students and hearing their perspectives.”

Husch Blackwell would compile a 150-page report detailing the university’s many Title IX policy failures. At the Board of Supervisors meeting where the report was presented, Galligan announced the suspensions of Executive Deputy Athletic Director Verge Ausberry and Senior Associate Athletic Director Miriam Segar. Ausberry received a 30-day suspension without pay and Segar received a 21-day suspension without pay.

The reluctance to fire the duo prompted outrage from students, notably Tigers Against Sexual Assault (TASA), which started numerous protests throughout Galligan’s presidency.

“It felt like he was almost not listening again and we were kind of back in that place where we were with other administrators,” LeJeune said, “where we just weren’t being listened to, and that was really disappointing.”

At one point, Galligan faced a hearing of state legislators to defend his choice to suspend Ausberry and Segar.

“At the end of the day, I think Galligan cared greatly for students and tried his best to implement change,” said student leader Angelina Cantelli, “but he was bound by the Board of Supervisors and existing cultures at LSU.