It’s the last week of the semester, a time when students look forward to finishing up with classes and moving on to different activities in the summer.
But this week also marks one of the last weeks Mark Emmert will serve as the University’s chancellor. Emmert is leaving LSU this summer to become president at his alma mater, the University of Washington.
Emmert has enjoyed a successful and well-respected tenure as chancellor, launching a comprehensive Flagship Agenda to improve the University’s academic reputation while also helping elevate the athletic department to national prominence.
The University launched the Flagship Agenda in fall 2002, a strategic plan to improve education and research, and make LSU a nationally prominent university.
Since then, the University has begun efforts to hire more professors, strengthen its information technology initiative and increase professor pay.
In addition, Emmert has been instrumental in improving the University’s athletic department. He hired head football coach Nick Saban in 1999, who led the team to a national championship this year. He also has helped oversee successful basketball, baseball and softball teams.
But in his office Thursday afternoon, it was not the Flagship Agenda or winning a national championship that Emmert reflected on. Instead, Emmert cited some of the smaller things that have made up his LSU career as his fondest memories.
“It’s not any one or two big events, it’s really small vignettes of interactions with students, seeing faculty be successful, watching students that I’ve come to know well mature and grow, and just walking around this beautiful campus,” he said.
Emmert said he is most proud of the fact that he and other University officials have been able to raise the expectations of what LSU can and should be as a university.
But the accomplishments did not always come easily.
Emmert said his biggest challenge as chancellor has been getting people, especially those not associated with the University, to understand what a crucial role LSU plays in the state.
“Louisiana cannot achieve what it wants without a great university in its midst,” Emmert said. “I think people understand that now, but it has taken some time.”
Emmert said those efforts to get those outside the University to understand the role LSU plays in Louisiana have come at the expense of spending more time with people on campus.
“Early on, I would have spent more time with the faculty and faculty leadership,” Emmert said. “I would have taken a little more time off to enjoy Louisiana, and I would have tried to find more time for direct interaction with students.”
LSU System President William Jenkins, who will take over as interim chancellor in the summer, said Emmert has brought a “distinct vision” to the campus, prioritizing and investing in areas such as information technology and biotechnology.
“He has laid a foundation that will be of enormous benefit,” Jenkins said. “He’s assembled a very good team. His hires are all top-class individuals.”
Jenkins said Emmert’s enthusiasm for the University and his efforts to gain more recognition for LSU has made him a notable leader.
“He has established aspirations for LSU and the student body that will leave a lasting impression on students,” Jenkins said. “He has set high goals and he has set the sights for LSU. He’s had an attitude of aspiration and a desire to move our institution ahead. I think he’ll be remembered very much as a chancellor that led LSU to new levels of excellence.”
Similarly, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Risa Palm said she thought Emmert will be remembered as someone who moved the University toward excellence through improving life for students, improving the quality of the faculty and making the University an attractive environment for everyone.
Emmert’s departure may mark a major change for LSU and the community, but he is not the only prominent local education official to be leaving the Baton Rouge area.
Last month, East Baton Rouge Parish School Superintendent Clayton Wilcox accepted a job to run the Pinellas County School Board in Florida. He expects to begin the position in September.
Janet Pace, a member of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, said Wilcox has pushed several initiatives to improve the quality of area schools, including working on the end of school desegregation, promoting tax renewals for more school construction and better teacher pay, and getting national organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to take part in local initiatives.
“He’s really pushed through a lot of reforms, and leaves the system in a better place,” Pace said.
With two leaders of the Baton Rouge education community leaving the area, some have questioned whether Emmert and Wilcox are leaving to pursue better educational opportunities out-of-state.
But Pace said she thinks it speaks well of Louisiana that schools in other states would look to Louisiana to find new leaders for their institutions.
“It really is a compliment that they would look to our state to find people for their states,” Pace said.
Pace said she thinks Wilcox has left Baton Rouge area schools in good hands, and that the state still has a strong educational system.
“I think Louisiana is a great place to get an education,” Pace said. “It really does speak well of Louisiana that they came here for these people [Emmert and Wilcox].”
Emmert said there is nothing wrong with LSU or Louisiana, and the decision for him was not from the perspective of leaving Louisiana, but of returning home.
“This was a very, very hard decision,” Emmert said. “My wife and I love it here. But the chance to lead your alma mater comes rarely, if ever at all.”
Emmert said he feels he leaves the University in good hands.
“We have this wonderful advantage of having Bill Jenkins, someone who knows the job and knows this university,” Emmert said. “We have a great provost, vice chancellors, good deans and a great Board of Supervisors. We’re in very good hands, and I think that will make it attractive to a lot of candidates.”