Chancellor Search Process Taking Shape
by Bill Barrow - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana State University System President John Lombardi said he will begin soliciting input Monday on who should sit on the search committee that will identify potential successors to LSU Chancellor Sean O'Keefe.

O'Keefe is stepping down Feb. 1 after a personnel review showed a lack of support from his superiors.

Lombardi said he wants an "inclusive . . . but efficient" search for a new leader at the state's flagship university.

He described a process that affirms an apparent determination among system officials to create a more seamless system led by a strong president, rather than a loose collection of institutions that some outside consultants have critiqued as unwieldy and unfocused.

Lombardi accepted O'Keefe's resignation letter Wednesday after what had become a public struggle over the chancellor's future. Lombardi did not mention the situation during his customary place on Thursday's agenda of the LSU System Board of Supervisors. Afterward, neither Lombardi nor board members shed any more light on O'Keefe's departure.

O'Keefe did not attend the meeting. Nor did William Jenkins, the former LSU System president and main campus chancellor who will assume O'Keefe's duties during the search.