NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe will resign his post this week and focus his efforts on becoming LSU’s next chancellor, the Associated Press and CNN reported Sunday.
O’Keefe, the head of NASA for the last three years and a New Orleans native, applied for the job early in the weekend.
Board of Supervisors Student Member Brad Golson said he could not confirm when O’Keefe would visit the campus, but expects it to be in the latter part of the week.
Golson said the specifics of O’Keefe’s interview are unsure because he did not officially apply until Saturday, by which time local and national media had broken the story.
“We couldn’t do anything until he officially submitted an application,” Golson said.
Golson said a broadcast e-mail detailing O’Keefe’s visit to the University will be sent to faculty, staff and students later in the day Sunday.
O’Keefe’s term at the space agency has been marked by tragedy and rebuilding, as he began his term fighting a budget crisis and the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. O’Keefe spent much of his time after the loss of Columbia investigating and reorganizing NASA’s operations.
Acting Chancellor and LSU System President William Jenkins “has had his eye on O’Keefe for quite some time,” Charles Zewe, spokesman for the University Board of Supervisors, told the Associated Press on Sunday.
Other applicants include: Peter Sloat Hoff, president of the University of Maine, the state’s flagship institution, Alan Goodridge, pharmacology professor, provost and executive vice president at the University of Toledo in Ohio, Peter Facione, philosophy professor and provost at Loyola University Chicago in Illinois, Francis Borkowski, faculty member and former chancellor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, Larry F. Lemanski, Florida Atlantic University’s vice-president for research and academic studies, Kenneth Randall, dean of University of Alabama School of Law, Michael Sartisky, president and executive director of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Lenny Bollingham, network analyst at LSU, Kevin Smith, former vice chancellor of research and current chemistry professor at LSU, Richard Paul Hough of Baton Rouge, a professional engineer an vice-president of CDI Business Solutions, David W. Couvillon of Port Allen, claims division manager for Louisiana Medicare Services in Baton Rouge and George Mollere, a Houston-based computer software developer for utility companies.