GSU president to be named Thursday

By the end of the evening Thursday, the “Gram Fam” of Grambling State University will know the name of the next president of this iconic HBCU.

The University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors — which governs GSU, Louisiana Tech and seven other institutions across the state — will hold a special meeting at 1 p.m. Thursday to interview, consider and ultimately appoint one of three finalists to Grambling’s top job.

Gregory Ford, Martin Lemelle and Monica Williams survived two rounds of cuts as the board’s search committee pared down the 11 applicants to three, a process that featured interviews and interest meetings with stakeholders on GSU’s campus.

Now the campus community’s role is over, and the final selection will be made by the full UL System board in Baton Rouge Thursday.

The meeting will be streamed live on the “University of Louisiana System” YouTube channel.

The next president will succeed Rick Gallot, who after seven years at GSU took over the presidency of the UL System on Jan. 1, when former UL System head Jim Henderson took the open presidency at Louisiana Tech.

Both Ford and Lemelle leveraged their backgrounds with Grambling State during their search committee interviews, while Williams highlighted her history in Texas higher education and fundraising prowess.

Ford is a neuroscientist, a tenured associate professor of biology and former vice chancellor at Southern University at New Orleans.

He called himself a “K-16” student of GSU’s campus during his search committee interview, highlighting his lifetime familiarity with the university and city.

“Grambling built the foundation of who I am… Our family is deeply ingrained in this institution,” Ford said. “ We believe in this institution, and this is my opportunity to come back home and give back to the town and to the college that gave me my foundation.”

Lemelle is a former top-level GSU administrator, having served as executive vice president and COO of the university for the first five years of Gallot’s tenure, from 2016 to 2021.

Like Ford, Lemelle went to grade school and undergraduate school in Grambling, and he too called the university his home.

He said his tenure laid the foundation for the GSU nursing program that boasted a 100% passage rate in 2022-23, calling the Gallot era a “turnaround” for the university.

“This moment is about transformation,” Lemelle said. “As we think about the student of today, they have the power of choice, and they need to be empowered with a return on investment.”

Williams is foundation president/ CEO and vice president of advancement at the University of North Texas at Dallas. She’s also served as an administrator at Prairie View A&M University and Texas Southern University, two HBCUs and athletic conference mates with GSU.

She developed a tentative strategic plan for her administration at GSU that she handed out to the search committee during her interview.

“Grambling State University is a premier institution,” Williams said. “There are low-hanging-fruit opportunities where I think I can make a difference.”

The meeting starts at 1 p.m. with a report from the search committee. Then after a procedural overview, the board will interview the finalists — likely partially in closed-door executive session.

Then begin deliberations, which will also be behind closed doors.

And finally, then the next president of GSU will be introduced.