Crowd gathers to welcome new LSU Eunice chancellor

Bringing numbers up – enrollment and foundation dollars – will be some of new chancellor Kimberly Russell’s top priorities when she takes over as LSU Eunice chancellor Sept. 1.
“We need to look at enrollment and retention of prospective students and providing additional access to students,” Russell said. “Maybe we can use an enrollment management program with targeted goals.”
“Enrollment peaked here in 2010, at the height of recession. It happened in Texas, too. Lots of people went back to school after the recession.”
About 100 people, including faculty, staff and students, attended Monday’s welcome reception for Russell at the university.
With her daughter now a junior at Baylor University, Russell decided it was time for a change of scenery when she applied for the job at LSU Eunice.
“This was a huge opportunity to be affiliated with a university like LSU and a community like Eunice,” she said. “I have 20 years in higher education, and this will be my first chance to lead. I am energized and excited about the future.”
“I’d like to provide value here.”
As chancellor, Russell will earn a salary of $205,000 annually.
Russell plans to reach out to local school board superintendents, work with them to make sure new students are scholastically ready when they enroll at the campus and learn more about dual enrollment.
She hopes to leverage partnerships with the community college systems in the state and work with other LSU campuses as well as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to make sure LSU Eunice students can get what they need to enter the work force in two years or transfer on to another school to complete a four year degree. Russell said she will also communicate with local industries to learn what work force needs are in this region and in the state.
“I will look at the curriculum,” she said. “There needs to be an expansion of all things not just technical and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields.”
Faculty and staff at LSU Eunice have expressed their hopes that the new chancellor will be able use her fundraising skills to fill the school foundation’s coffer, which has about $2.5 million in it, and find a way to give employees raises.
“The Tyler Junior College Foundation had $8 million at the start, and it now has $47 million,” Russell said. “I’d really like to be able to do something similar here. I want to reach out to the community and reengage the alumni. I want to remind people we are here.”
“The whole state is facing challenges, but students have to have the resources to complete their studies.”
Russell said she has understood there will be no adding or subtracting from the school’s 2015-2016 budget, and raises are a priority she will explore in the future.
The new chancellor plans to keep the school’s successful sports programs and look at expanding athletics later down the road, too.
“We need to look at what sports are played in the region,” she said. “I believe athletics develop the whole student, and students who compete in sports are more likely to complete their education.”
Allison Briscoe, Student Government Association president and sophomore pre-vet student, stopped to wish Russell good luck in her new position.
“I’m excited, very excited,” Briscoe, of Richard, said. “Hopefully some new and exciting things will come to LSU Eunice.”
Russell will communicate weekly and meet with interim chancellor vice chancellor Renee Robichaux as her full time start day draws near, she said.
“The search process went smoothly,” Robichaux said. “We had a number of applicants. I got an arm workout carrying around the binder of resumes.”
“I’d like to thank the search committee members for their hard work.”
“It’s a great day for us,” said F. King Alexander, president of LSU. “LSU Eunice has a new chancellor pulled in from national search. It was a hard year for a national search with the state’s budget challenges. People know about the state’s budget problems in New York and Washington.”
“I want to thank all the students and legislators. Higher education must be protected if were are to have new generations of career minded students.”