Southern University System board of supervisors voted Friday not to renew Baton Rouge chancellor James Llorens’ contract when it expires June 30.
Llorens was successful in making numerous improvements at the Louisiana institution. Under his leadership, enrollment on the campus increased, and most notably freshman enrollment rose from 743 in fall of 2012 to 1,115 in 2013.
Southern-Baton Rouge (SUBR) is the flagship school in the five-campus Southern University System, the only historically Black university system in the country.
Llorens took the helm amid serious financial and academic setbacks in July 2011. The following year, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed Southern-Baton Rouge on probation for not providing adequate records on its compliance with academic standards. But Llorens’ staff produced the required data and SACS lifted the probation in June 2013.
System president Ron Mason told Diverse he favored keeping Llorens’ at SUBR ― with conditions. “My recommendation was to extend his contract for one year under certain conditions and by July 1 to make recommendations to the board to address those issues.”
Mason said the conditions involved developing a plan to improve operations on the campus and to have an assessment from the system about how the improvements were working.
