Chancellor Jackson named Interim System President

TheResidentAssistant

Jackson named Southern University interim system president
Dr. Edward Jackson, SUBR chancellor was named Southern University interim system president while search continues to fill the system president position at Southern University. - File Photo

Hired firm, search committee need more time to narrow list and check backgrounds of candidates
by DIGEST News Service
June 13, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - The chancellor of Southern University's main campus in Baton Rouge will be in charge of the system's five campuses while a search committee keeps looking for a new system president, the board of supervisors has decided.

Dr. Edward R. Jackson will keep his title as Baton Rouge campus chancellor while acting as interim president, probably well into the fall semester and possibly longer, SU system board chairman Johnny Anderson said.

"I realize fully this is an interim position, but it's still one to be cherished," said Jackson, who brought his wife and children to the meeting in New Orleans where the board made the decision.

He will oversee Southern campuses in Shreveport and New Orleans, the agricultural and law centers in Baton Rouge, and continue to run the main campus, as he has since 1998.

The Southern University system is the only historically black Land Grant university system in the United States. The main campus in Baton Rouge serves an average of 9,500 students. With all of its campuses combined, the system serves a student population of around 17,000 and is governed with its own independent board of supervisors.

The board named Jackson's longtime assistant, Margaret Ambrose, executive vice chancellor to help him with his expanded duties.

"We've been together for seven and a half years," Jackson said. "She knows my every thought."

System President Dr. Leon Tarver announced in February that he would step down as president in June to return to teaching.

The firm hired to find applicants for his replacement has received more than 40 calls and letters from candidates, but needs more time to whittle down the list and check backgrounds, said Anderson, who is also on the search committee.

The names collected by the firm have not been released to the public but will be announced at the committee's next meeting, in July.

The committee will then review the candidates, start interviews and bring front-runners to campus to meet with the Southern community.

About 20 people have applied directly to the committee, Anderson said, and Jackson's name is not among them.

Jackson arrived at Southern's Baton Rouge campus in 1968 as an assistant professor and later a department chair.

He has since served as dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and executive vice president and provost of the Southern University System, according to a news release from the university.

Jackson also has overseen the national accreditation and reaccreditation of 47 of the Baton Rouge campus' academic programs.

The latest accreditation was announced at Saturday's meeting. The college's School of Fine Arts was recognized last week as being on par with its peer programs across the nation.

Anderson admonished university leaders to make sure their programs satisfy accrediting agencies when the agencies return to campus for re-checks in the next few years.

One possible mark against Southern's schools, he said, is the number of faculty members who continue to teach long after they've failed to meet requirements for tenure, including those for publishing research.

Tenure is a strong form of job security awarded to professors who, after a trial period, meet a university's standards of performance.

In all, 48 of the Baton Rouge school's 51 programs are now nationally recognized and accredited.

"We're within three of having all ... of our programs nationally accredited. That is a singular accomplishment," Anderson said.

The Associated Press and the SU Office of University Relations contributed to this story.

TheDude321 · Newbie Joined: Apr 18, 2005 Posts: 11 Status: **Offline**

I don't think that it will interfere too much with his duties as SU-BR chancellor. The main thing is that we don't want them to rush in finding a new president. They need to take their time and find the right person for the job.