Grambling State University president Dr. Raymond A. Hicks is
leaving his job after losing the confidence of the Louisiana Board of
Trustees for State Colleges and Universities while ongoing financial
and administrative problems continue to plague the northern Louisiana
school.
Hicks confirmed his decision to leave in a hastily arranged press
conference earlier this month, declaring that to “continue to fight for
the opportunity to complete the plan of this presidency could destroy
me personally and professionally, as well as destroy this great
institution.”
Hicks said he was forced to resign after being told by Carl
Shetler, the new chairman of the Louisiana’s board of trustees, that a
voting majority of the state board had coalesced “to end this
presidency today, after only two years.”
Hicks’s sudden departure leaves Grambling reeling. Dawn Wilson, a
spokesperson for the board, said there is currently no “immediate
candidate to replace Dr. Hicks,” although on recent occasions Grambling
Provost Leonard Hayes has served as acting president in Hicks’s absence.
“A committee of three has been appointed by the board of trustees
to discuss and make recommendations for an interim president,” Wilson
added. “And we are obviously hoping that person will be named as soon
as possible.”
Brandy Evans, campus editor for the Gramblinite, the school paper, said Hicks’s exit leaves many unanswered questions.
“All the students know for sure is that he resigned and that he was
obviously forced to do so. But none of us know the reasons why,” she
said.
