The Founder
Well-Known Member
http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/op...ditorial-gallot-skill-set-gsu-needs/87673400/
A tall task awaits Rick Gallot.
Selected last week to be Grambling State University president, Gallot must confront restive alumni, troubled finances and recruiting challenges.
It won’t be easy. Gallot is the 11th president at GSU in the past 25 years. By comparison, Louisiana Tech University has had three presidents since 1962 and the University of Louisiana at Monroe has had four since 1976.
Gallot’s first mission is to overcome the sense that he was the anointed one. The University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors voted to suspend its rules and put the search on a fast track. Applications were taken for one month, and the board chose not to hire a search firm, the practice in the past.
That suggests that the board members already had a candidate in mind. More than the choice of Gallot himself, some of the biggest complaints from students and alumni concerned the process.
In choosing Gallot, board members turned their backs for a second time on the other finalist, former Tuskegee University President Gilbert Rochon, a finalist last year when the board selected Willie Larkin to be GSU president.
In selecting Gallot over Rochon, the board chose political skills over academic prowess. That, too, has brought some complaints. But after a series of failed – or at least short – tenures, perhaps those skills fit best into Grambling’s needs, which are significant.
An attorney and former state senator, Gallot understands how the system works. In Gallot, alumni have something they’ve been wanting a long time, a family member. Gallot is a 1987 GSU graduate.
A tall task awaits Rick Gallot.
Selected last week to be Grambling State University president, Gallot must confront restive alumni, troubled finances and recruiting challenges.
It won’t be easy. Gallot is the 11th president at GSU in the past 25 years. By comparison, Louisiana Tech University has had three presidents since 1962 and the University of Louisiana at Monroe has had four since 1976.
Gallot’s first mission is to overcome the sense that he was the anointed one. The University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors voted to suspend its rules and put the search on a fast track. Applications were taken for one month, and the board chose not to hire a search firm, the practice in the past.
That suggests that the board members already had a candidate in mind. More than the choice of Gallot himself, some of the biggest complaints from students and alumni concerned the process.
In choosing Gallot, board members turned their backs for a second time on the other finalist, former Tuskegee University President Gilbert Rochon, a finalist last year when the board selected Willie Larkin to be GSU president.
In selecting Gallot over Rochon, the board chose political skills over academic prowess. That, too, has brought some complaints. But after a series of failed – or at least short – tenures, perhaps those skills fit best into Grambling’s needs, which are significant.
An attorney and former state senator, Gallot understands how the system works. In Gallot, alumni have something they’ve been wanting a long time, a family member. Gallot is a 1987 GSU graduate.