Southern Baton Rouge chancellor resigns
By: Nancy Cook
Updated: January 9, 2011
The chancellor of the largest campus of the country’s largest black university system has resigned only one month before his contract was scheduled to expire.
Dr. Kofi Lomotey, chancellor of the Baton Rouge campus of Southern University System, submitted his letter of resignation on Thanksgiving Day.
It was accepted by unanimous vote today by the Board of Supervisors. Board members met today in New Orleans, where the 37th Bayou Classic football game between Southern and Grambling Universities will be played Saturday. The board had been scheduled to vote Friday on Lomotey's $295,000-a-year contract, which was scheduled to expire after December.
Lomotey’s resignation came after the college’s faculty senate gave him a vote of “no confidence” in early November. The faculty was upset with Lomotey over firing employees, seeking to eliminate the school of architecture, along with ineffective fund raising. The chancellor also was blamed for a decline in enrollment.
The embattled chancellor agreed to stay on until July 1, 2011, in order to give the board ample time to search for his replacement.
Lomotey was one of three finalists - Southern University at Shreveport Chancellor Ray Belton and Alcorn State University Vice President for Academic Affairs Napoleon Moses – for the position. He was hired after a 9-6 vote at the end of a five-hour meeting in May 2008, and took over July 1 of that year.
Like all Louisiana’s state schools, Southern has been forced to endure huge budget cuts, which will amount to losing more than 30 percent in funding next year.
