Southern University names John Pierre chancellor

By Piper Hutchinson
Contributing Writer

(lailluminator.com) — The Southern University Board of Supervisors has named John Pierre as chancellor of the system’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge.

Pierre, currently chancellor of the Southern University Law Center, will be the first chancellor of the campus since 2015, when the position was merged with the system president due to budget constraints.

Dennis Shields, Southern’s current president-chancellor, will continue his work as system president.

“This institution is the greatest institution in the world for providing access and opportunity and the system is the greatest place to provide access and opportunity,” Pierre said after accepting the position.

Pierre has worked at Southern University Law Center for more than 30 years, serving as its chancellor since 2016. He will immediately assume the role of chancellor of Southern University A&M.

His appointment comes after a four month search for a new chancellor.

The consolidation of the two roles became necessary eight years ago when Louisiana reached the peak of a self-inflicted budget crisis during former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration.

State aid to higher education was reduced more than 55 percent as a result of budget cuts, leaving a hole that had to be mended with increased tuition and fees that climbed at some college campuses more than 100 percent.

Southern University faced the additional constraint of decades of underfunding for Historically Black Universities and Colleges, although Shields said earlier this month he feels optimistic the new Legislature and Gov. Jeff Landry will address the funding disparity.

Myron Lawson, chair of the Southern University Board of Supervisors, said in an interview in November the separate chancellor’s position for the university pays for itself, in terms of fundraising and attracting students.

“When you’re getting to recruiting, it’s not an unusual number that a president can deal with when it comes to recruiting that will justify his or her salary,” Lawson said. “As important is retention, and we’re going to be looking very heavily on seeing that person can certainly work on retention aspects.”

“Retention pays for itself,” Lawson added.

This article originally published in the March 25, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.