New GSU president: Lemelle talks vision, leadership

Martin Lemelle will arrive at Grambling State University with a trove of prior knowledge and experience about the institution — its history, current status and future trajectory.

But GSU’s soon-to-be president will admit he doesn’t know everything just yet, nor is his voice the only one that will shape the storied university’s next era.

This third-generation GSU graduate who grew up in the Grambling Lab school almost certainly brought the most familiarity with the university’s inner workings to the pool of applicants seeking to succeed former President Rick Gallot. After all, he was Gallot’s second in command for five years.

A former president of the Tiger student body, Lemelle sees Grambling State as America’s premier HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities), refers to its long tradition of athletic prowess as a “sacred space,” and helped lay the groundwork for the financial improvement and new academic programs the university now enjoys.

Yes, Lemelle is not an unknown in Grambling. But as he prepares to return to his alma mater, this time as its chief, he wants the community know his leadership is one of shared experience and buy-in.

“From my very early days, if I enjoyed something, whether that was a movie or a candy bar, I wanted to share that with someone else,” he said. “That, at my core, is how I think about leadership. It’s a space to create common connection, to grow together and work towards a common purpose.”

Having been unanimously selected last week by the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors to succeed Gallot, Lemelle is awaiting negotiations on a start date in the coming days.

While he has his own ideas of where to take Grambling State, he first wants to ensure he has the full picture of the university’s status since his departure in 2021 — every academic program’s enrollment target progress, every campus building’s utilization — before inviting stakeholders to the table and getting on the same page.

For example, Lemelle knows he wants to launch a large- scale capital campaign to draw in funds to bolster student scholarships and faculty support.

But the details won’t come from him alone.

“ Here’s your donor base, here are your strategic priorities, and then collectively, through a good shared governance process, we agree on a goal,” he said. “And then we have to be able to communicate, create the messaging around that, and start the buy-in. A capital campaign is a big endeavor, and it’s going to require a lot of effort across the Grambling ecosystem.”

After five years as executive vice president and COO at GSU, Lemelle served as executive VP and CFO at Maryland Institute College of Art, managing a $91 million budget and $120 million endowment there.

With a financed-centered background, he spearheaded efforts to refinance GSU’s debt in 2016 and eventually see that debt forgiven in late 2020 through federal COVID-19 relief.

And while that expertise in financial wellness will be much of what Lemelle brings to the table once again at Grambling State, it’s not the only kind on his mind.

“I’m very passionate about overall wellness,” he said. “That journey for me takes on a variety of forms… To ensure that each day provides a level of reinforcement in the whole existence of an individual. I never want to lose sight of that.”

As a former spin instructor, part of that wellness affinity means physical activity, but it also means meditation, mental health, journaling, and his faith through the United Church of Christ.

It also means spending time with his niece and nephews, including taking them to athletic events.

As a lifetime GSU Tiger fan whose father was recruited by the great Fredrick Hobdy to play basketball at Grambling, Lemelle has a great respect for what athletics means to this university and its community.

“Grambling State University has a storied athletic tradition,” he said. “It will be the continual front door to our experience. Oftentimes if you think about powerhouse brands, you’re often associating that brand with one unique element. And that may be, for Grambling, for a lot of people the experience of our athletic tradition.

“That’s a sacred space for us, one that needs continual nurturing and investment.”

But he also said student- athletes will also be students first and, like all students, must be equipped for success in careers outside the athletic arena.

Lemelle sees a wide variety of excellent academic programs at GSU that he hopes to grow and nurture to further meet the needs of students and the Louisiana workforce.

Whether it’s the nursing program that in 2023 celebrated a 100% pass rate for students taking the registered nurse licensing exam, the recently launched cybersecurity and cloud computing programs, the criminal justice major that continues to be GSU’s largest in terms of graduates, the College of Education or the College of Business that boasts AACSB accreditation, there are many student pathways where Lemelle sees opportunities for future investment.

“We want to be able to service the educational needs of Louisiana, of the world, through a variety of differnet modalities,” he said. “That’s both enhancing our footprint online and on campus as well as the type of different education experiences we provide.”

When looking to the near future of Grambling State University, Lemelle may have expressed his studentfocused vision best in the final interview with the UL System board before being selected.

“If we can improve the outcomes for our students — more students who graduate on time from Grambling State University, graduate with a career in hand, and hopefully graduate debt-free — that would be the dream five years from now.”