LSU Shreveport Holds Spring Graduation Ceremony The LSU Shreveport Spring Commencement ceremony took

place on Sunday, May 15, 2016 at 2 p.m. at CenturyLink Center in Bossier City, LA. Among the participants, 391 degrees were awarded to graduates who have completed programs in the College of Arts & Sciences, and the College of Business, Education and Human Development.

“Our graduates are beginning a new and bright future that each and every one of them has worked so hard to build,” said

Chancellor of LSU Shreveport, Larry Clark. “Our wish for them is that they remember everything they have learned at LSU Shreveport and go forward with the confidence that they are primed and ready for all that lies ahead.”

The commencement address was given by Ms. Sarah Kirkpatrick, J.D., current president of the LSUS Alumni Association.

Kirkpatrick received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University at Shreveport, cum laude, in 1993, where she was inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honor society. In 1996, she received her Juris Doctor degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University, where she was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi and served on the Louisiana Law Review.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Kirkpatrick has been an active member of her community, both within the legal profession as a partner at Bradley Murchison Kelly & Shea, LLC, and in the community-at-large. Most recently, she has helped initiate a new alumni association for Caddo Parish Magnet High School. She is also serving on, and offering her services to, the

Board for Hope for the Homeless, Inc., an organization dedicated to ending the homeless cycle. She has previously held office in both the Shreveport Bar Association and the Shreveport Bar Foundation Pro Bono Project, served, by appointment of the Caddo District Judges, on the Caddo Parish Indigent Defense Board of Directors, and served on the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel Board, where she instituted new continuing education programs for younger members.

To see a full list of graduates, CLICK HERE.

LSUS Holds Special Graduation Ceremony

A very special graduation ceremony was held this past Friday, May 13, in honor of the seven seniors on the LSUS Baseball Team. Oliver Christensen, Garrett Lambert, Connor McMullin, Richard Tordsen, Jared Vial, Kevin Williams, and Michael Wilson were honored at the ceremony and were joined with their teammates along with faculty, staff, family and friends for the special day. Garrett Lambert and Michael Wilson were donned with gold cords during the ceremony as honor recognitions for their dedication and perseverance at LSU Shreveport.

The gathering began in the ballroom, where everyone watched the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NAIA) Opening Round Selection Show that unveiled the Pilots would be heading to Montgomery, AL as a fourth seed to compete in the opening round of the NAIA Baseball Championship. This graduation ceremony was important for the seven seniors who were not able to attend the May 15 commencement because of their early departure that day to the NAIA Championship. LSUS faculty and staff are pleased and honored to have been a part of these student-athletes academic journey.

BASEBALL (38-18): The Pilots continue their quest on the Road to Lewiston at the NAIA Opening Round as the no. 4

seed in the Montgomery Bracket on the campus of AUM. The Pilots will play the no. 5 seed Indiana Wesleyan on Tuesday at 11 a.m. CT. The winner of that game will play no. 1 AUM that night at 7 p.m.

Fans can listen to all LSUS Opening Round games as they have all season long on the LSUS portal on Stretch Internet.

1. Commencement. Yesterday’s LSUS commencement exercise was a great success. I walked

around being part of family celebration pictures for nearly an hour after commencement. I heard many comments of appreciation concerning how many LSUS faculty were in attendance. Darlenna Atkins, assisted by a devoted group of staff members from all sectors of campus, is the driving force for how well executed commencement is for us. All runs like clockwork, including the usual great opening comments from Aaron Suckle (who is also responsible for the LSUS signage in the hallway). Sarah Kirkpatrick did a great job as our commencement speaker- I was moved to see how many of our graduates, like Sarah, were first in their family to graduate from college. As I stated yesterday, this is very strong evidence why public higher education must continue to be valued as a public good. It was also interesting to see how many online degree students were having their first interaction with LSUS at graduation- this is a much different LSUS than even just a few years ago. Thank you to all for helping to make yesterday so special for our graduates. I assure you, they greatly appreciated your efforts.

2. Tuition and/or Fee Increase(s). LSUS successfully met GRAD Act performance criteria for the 2015-16 academic year. As such, we are permitted to increase tuition rates for next year to peer average (capped at 10%). For us, this would permit an increase of 2.62% for undergraduate and up to 10% for graduate students. In addition, the LSU Board of Supervisors has legislative authority for one more year to increase student fees for next year (most University of Louisiana universities have already elected to raise fees over successive years- an option that LSUS did not pursue). We must submit any request(s) by this coming Friday. Our challenge is that we will not know our FY2016-17 budget by Friday. After this year, with the elimination of the GRAD Act and the expiration of the fee authority to the BOS, we will not be assured of being able to raise either tuition or fees. We do NOT want to further burden our students. However, we also cannot absorb additional significant permanent budget cuts (with no expectation of mitigation). With LSUS in summer mode, it is difficult to bring together the LSUS Planning Council. Instead, I am going to invite the SGA President, Staff Senate President and the current and incoming Faculty Senate Presidents to join the Administrative Team group to discuss this matter and to advise me for action(s).

3. Pilots Baseball Team. Today the Pilots baseball team begins it NAIA play-offs games at the

sports complex at Auburn University-Montgomery. On Friday we provided a recognition event for the seven graduating seniors on the team. Yesterday, we ran a full-page ad in the Shreveport Times to congratulate Coach Cantwell and the team for winning our conference championship (the ad will be repeated by the Times for free in tomorrow’s sports section since it was not placed where it was supposed to be on Sunday). Go Pilots.

4. Bass Fishing Team. Below is a fun note that I received this morning from Karen James, the “coach” of our LSUS Bass Fishing Team:

Bass Club President Jared Rascoe was chosen to run one of the camera boats for the professional Bassmaster Elite tournament on Toledo Bend Thurs-Sun. We received some great publicity on the bassmaster blog when the angler being covered caught an 8 pounder and then hooked himself – see http://www.bassmaster.com/blog/kvd-hooks-8-pounder-and-himself (second picture) for a great shot of the LSU Shreveport boat. As this angler won the tournament, there is every possibility that our boat will appear in the televised show of the tournament.

5. AD Search. The Athletics Department Search Committee, chaired by Julie Lessiter, has

completed Skype interviews with semi-finalists and is about to recommend their finalists to me. A separate announcement will be made concerning the names of the finalists and their campus visits.

6. LSUS Foundation. On Wednesday the LSUS Foundation Annual Meeting will be held in the UC Ballroom. Harold Turner, the President, will complete his term and George Fritze will become the new Board President. Harold has been a highly engaged President- he deeply cares about higher education and wants LSUS to be the best possible university for our faculty and students. We are fortunate to have a very enthusiastic and supportive LSUS Foundation Board of Directors (with strong support from Foundation members). Thank you, also, to Laura Perdue for her leadership and hard work on our behalf.

7. Barksdale. This past Friday evening I attended the going away celebration party for Base Commander/Colonel Kristen Goodwin. COL. Goodwin gave me one of her military coins (this military tradition of coin passage was played out at the ROTC celebration event after our LSUS Commencement with our two new Lieutenants). In addition, she thanked LSUS for our efforts in better connecting to BAFB. While she did not mention Mike Welch by name, I will. Mike has been terrific as our first LSUS Liaison to BAFB. Thank you to Mike and the many others, including the Admissions Office team, for helping us be greater in sync with BAFB.