New man on campus

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Aug 5, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Starting his first full day as LSU’s new chancellor, Michael Martin said he almost felt like a schoolboy again. 

“I got up this morning and I said to my wife (Jan), ‘This is like the first day of first    grade,’ ” Martin said. “Where’s the drinking fountain? What time is recess? Do we get milk and cookies?”

The former New Mexico State University president said he is hitting the ground running in Baton Rouge and quickly picking up a more purple and gold wardrobe.

After a morning full of meetings, Martin spoke briefly to incoming LSU freshmen attending orientation events before meeting with the media.

“Share with me what you’ve learned so I can catch up,” Martin asked of the new students.

A Minnesota native, Martin self-deprecatingly referred to himself both as the “bald-headed Yankee” and a “migrant academic worker.”

But it is not about a person’s background, he said. Rather, it is about putting LSU first while working together to increase funding, diversity and student and faculty quality on campus, he said.

“I think one of the weaknesses is the institution (LSU) itself may not know — as much as some of us on the outside know — how good it is,” Martin said.

Martin, who specializes academically in economics and agriculture, was hired in the beginning of June after being named the sole finalist for the job at the tail end of a secretive search process.

He replaces former Chancellor Sean O’Keefe, who resigned under fire in January, and interim Chancellor William Jenkins.

Martin is being reunited with his former boss, LSU System President John Lombardi, who hired Martin at the University of Florida when Lombardi was president there.

Although Martin has worked at similar large, flagship universities such as Florida and the University of Minnesota, Martin said he has several “big briefing books” getting him up to speed on LSU.

Despite having a new person in charge, Martin warned that people should not expect a lot of changes right off the bat.