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Front-runner for UL post gets interim appointment Board to hold presidential search amid turmoil
Full SNAP benefits will be paid in November elderly, disabled may see a little extra, governor says
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
StaFF PHOtO By BraD KeMP
ramesh Kolluru, center, turns and addresses the faculty and staff of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette after being appointed the new interim president during a special meeting of the UL system board on thursday. BY ASHLEY WHITE and MEGAN WYATT Staff writers
The University of Louisiana system board announced Thursday that it will form a search committee to find the next president of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, capping speculation that the board would forgo a search and install a president without any input from faculty or students. The announcement came at a special meeting of the UL system board after backlash from professors and others involved on campus who pushed back against initial plans to install Ramesh Kolluru, UL’s vice president for research, innovation and economic development, into the job without a search. The board spent an hour in a closed-door, executive session to discuss the search before emerging and announcing they would
“As you know, we’ve all been through a lot. Let me be clear — it’s not our people who have failed our systems. It is our broken systems, in some part, that have failed our people. But I believe in this university, I believe in you, and I believe in us as one UL.”
“We are going to confirm a great group of community leaders and individuals that have a vested interest in seeing this university succeed,” said Board Chair Mark Romero, “and that are committed to serving the interests of supporting the selection of the future president of this university.” Romero and other board members did not offer specifics on the timeline for the raMeSH KOLLUrU, interim president of search or name the members who will be the University of Louisiana at Lafayette joining the search committee. The school has been without a permanent president since Joseph Savoie form a search committee. stepped down in July and Hebert took Still, the board also named Kolluru as over as interim. Savoie was serving in the university’s interim president. The an advisory role and expected to take a appointment came at the recommenda- faculty position next year, but announced tion of Jaimie Hebert, who had been serv- this week that he would instead officially ing as interim president since Aug. 1, and retire at the end of the year. who asked to return to his former job of ä See INTERIM, page 5A provost.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said Thursday that some people who get food stamp benefits may ultimately see a little extra in their accounts with the end of the federal government shutdown — and everyone on the program will get the full benefit amount for November. “I think the elderly and the disabled may get a little extra for Thanksgiving this year thanks to their governor and their Legislature,” Landry said during a radio interview on WBOK. The federal government stopped paying benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program this month due to the shutdown, leading Louisiana officials to step in and cover part of the benefits for elderly and disabled residents who use the program. Legal challenges spurred the Trump administration to begin paying partial benefits. With the government reopened, residents will get a full month’s worth of payments. Landry told Will Sutton, a WBOK host and columnist for The TimesPicayune | The Advocate, that elderly and disabled recipients had already been issued 85% of their typical benefit payment, and they
ä See SNAP, page 5A
aSSOCIateD PreSS FILe PHOtO
SNaP payments were halted during the government shutdown.
Indictment of former state legislator prompts questions Legal experts weigh in on challenges for prosecution
of former House Speaker Clay Schexnayder in Baton Rouge prompted a series of legal questions Thursday. The biggest one is this: Can she prosecute him without knowing the location of an ancient cypress BY TYLER BRIDGES wood board at the heart of the case Staff writer that was last seen 18 months ago in Attorney General Liz Murrill’s what was then his legislative office decision to seek an indictment in Gonzales?
WeatHer HIGH 77 LOW 57 PaGe 10C
Wednesday’s indictment charges that Schexnayder “knowingly and intentionally committed theft of a rare Louisiana state artifact.” Schexnayder Schexnayder served as speaker of the 105-member House from 2020-24, during
the second term of then-Gov. John Bel Edwards. Murrill’s office has released few details on the indictment, saying it does not comment on pending criminal cases. But she has said the case is straightforward. “You don’t get to keep State property,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “It doesn’t belong to you.”
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Murrill could not be reached for comment on Thursday. People involved in the case said her office interviewed them to gather facts and collect documents. Both she and Schexnayder are Republicans. Attorneys contacted Thursday,
ä See INDICTMENT, page 5A
101St year, NO. 137