SU panel interviews last chancellor hopefuls

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Apr 11, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:15 a.m.

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Southern University wrapped up its four-day interview marathon of 16 chancellor candidates Thursday with two top internal applicants.

Southern University Graduate Studies Dean Jim Llorens and Southern at Shreveport Chancellor Ray Belton were among the final five candidates to interview Thursday with the chancellor search committee and Southern System President Ralph Slaughter.

Committee members can review DVDs of all the recorded interviews. They must score the interviews by Tuesday.

Each question’s response is graded on a roughly 10-point scale by each committee member, then the totals will be tabulated, Slaughter said.

The search committee will then have a closed meeting on April 21 to begin narrowing the list of candidates down to a handful of finalists, said committee co-Chairman Matthew Butler of The Shaw Group.

“I’m confident we’ll be able to whittle the list,” Butler said, while also praising the quality of the candidates.

Thursday’s other interviewees were Napoleon Moses, Alcorn State University vice president for academic affairs in Mississippi; Burnett Joiner, senior vice president for academic affairs at Benedict College in South Carolina; and Rita Teal, South Carolina State University interim vice president for academic affairs.

Llorens, a political scientist who became graduate studies dean in 2002, kicked off the last day of interviews with blunt statements about the future of Southern’s main Baton Rouge campus.

“I honestly believe that, in the next three to five years, we’ll have to establish ourselves to transform this institution,” Llorens said.

Southern’s enrollment is shrinking, state funding is limited and admissions standards continue to increase.

“I think we have to be more innovative and more creative in how we attract students,” Llorens said. “We have to offer a product.

Student satisfaction and improved graduation rates are critical, he said.

“They (students) are not going back (home) complaining; they’re going back bragging,” Llorens said. “That’s what we need to instill in our students.