Gov. Landry-backed candidate, two others named finalists for Northwestern State presidency

Northwestern University entrance. (Courtesy of Wikipedia.org)

A non-traditional applicant with the backing of Gov. Jeff Landry and two others were named finalists to be the next president of Northwestern State University.

The Northwestern State University presidential search committee Monday advanced Associate State Supreme Court Justice Jimmy Genovese, Massachusetts Deputy Commissioner of Higher Education Richard Riccardi and University of Colorado Springs Vice Chancellor Jose Cantu as finalists.

The position was vacated after the current president, Marcus Jones, announced he was resigning to take the position of senior adviser to University of Louisiana System President Rick Gallot. Jones has served in the position since November 2021.

The candidates will travel to the Natchitoches campus for town hall-style interviews next week, where the university community will have the opportunity to interact with them.

Genovese, who does not have any higher education experience, told The Advocate that Landry has sent text messages to support his candidacy. Genovese leaving the court would create an opportunity for the governor to help elect an ally to the bench.

The search committee was called June 10, with the aim to hire a president July 18. It’s unusual for a presidential search committee, the industry standard for selecting a university leader, to make a decision on such a short timeline. It is also unusual for searches to be held primarily over the summer, when many professors and students have their attention elsewhere.

“I’m a little concerned that everything about this search seems to be designed to give an advantage to the candidate the governor seems to put up,” Frank Serio, the faculty representative to the committee, said in an interview with the Illuminator.

The Illuminator attempted to ask the governor about faculty concerns the search process was skewed toward his favored applicant at a news conference on another topic last week. But the question was interrupted, though the governor took a moment to address the search generally.

“I think it’s important that the people or the state of Louisiana are in control of their universities,” Landry said. “And so what we respond to as stakeholders in those areas, as we look towards trying to take universities who are in trouble and taking them out of trouble.”

The timeline to replace NSU’s president was not originally so condensed.

With the help of a new law that gave the governor further power over state higher education boards , Landry replaced University of Louisiana Board of Supervisors Chair Jimmy Clarke with Mark Romero. In an interview, Clarke said the proposed timeline while he was chair would have resulted in the selection of a new president sometime later in the fall semester.

The chair has the authority to set the search timeline. Days after Romero took over from Clarke, the rapid timeline was announced.

Romero said he opted to condense the timeline so the new president could be installed before the fall semester began. As a student, Romero said he underwent several administrative and academic transitions, and he feels it would be better for students to know their president going into the academic year.

The three candidates were advanced as finalists from among five applicants after three others withdrew their applications. Romero said he didn’t know why the three withdrew.

Romero and several other members of the search committee said they had not heard from Landry regarding Genovese’s candidacy.

Though Landry denied wanting Genovese off the court in an interview with The Advocate , Landry has made several attempts to shift the court to the right.

Landry’s interest in the Northwestern State search renewed the fears of many in higher education who thought giving the governor further influence over higher education boards would lead to even more political influence.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the accrediting body for Louisiana universities, requires that governing boards for its accredited schools remain free from undue external influence.

In 2020, SACSCOC found Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, had undue influence on the University of South Carolina’s search for a new president. At the time, McMaster asked trustees to end the search and hire Bob Calsen, a former West Point superintendent. Calsen resigned the next year amidst a plagiarism scandal .

If Genovese is hired for the position, he would not be the first former elected official with no higher education experience to lead a university.

Before serving as Grambling State’s president, Gallot was a Democratic legislator for many years. LSU also considered former Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne to be its president, before reopening the search to hire William Tate.

Many other universities and university systems are also led by former elected officials, including the University System of Georgia, led by former governor and Trump agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue, and the University of Florida, led by former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska.

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