The Savoie period ends: UL Lafayette president publicizes he’s stepping down

Dr. Joseph Savoie is stepping down as president of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette following a transformational 17-year tenure. Savoie, a two-time UL Lafayette graduate and its sixth president, has been named president emeritus by the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors. His final day as president is Thursday. 

Dr. Jaimie Hebert, the University’s provost and vice chairman for Academic Affairs for the previous seven years, will function interim president in the course of the seek for a everlasting successor.  

The UL System Board of Supervisors authorized Savoie’s new function as president emeritus and Hebert’s service as interim president throughout a particular assembly on Wednesday. As president emeritus, Savoie will work to strengthen exterior collaborations with alumni, supporters, neighborhood companions and different stakeholders.

Dr. Rick Gallot, president and CEO of the University of Louisiana System, known as Savoie “a once-in-a-generation leader who has served his alma mater faithfully and well during a period of extraordinary change and challenge.”

“As president and in the various roles he’s held throughout his career, Dr. Savoie has always put the needs of students first. I have no doubt he will continue to do so in his new role as president emeritus. UL Lafayette and the state of Louisiana owe him a great deal of thanks for his lifetime commitment to higher education,” Gallot mentioned. 

In a letter Wednesday to the campus neighborhood, Savoie known as serving as UL Lafayette’s president since 2008 “the honor of my life, the culmination of a long and happy relationship with a special place that we all share.” He expressed appreciation to the University’s school, employees, college students, alumni, supporters and neighborhood companions as he mirrored on the previous 17 years. “I am so proud of what we have achieved together,” Savoie wrote. 
 
He continued: “I reached the decision to transition to this new position after months of careful consideration. Higher education has changed immensely in the past two decades. The expectations on colleges and universities are as great as they have ever been and meeting those responsibilities to our community today – and to generations that follow – requires new ideas and fresh approaches. I owe it to this institution that has given me so much, personally and professionally, to make way for the future.”
 
Significant developments in tutorial excellence, campus infrastructure, analysis capabilities and neighborhood engagement marked Savoie’s presidency. 
 
UL Lafayette earned the celebrated Carnegie R1 classification, putting it among the many high 5% of the nation’s analysis establishments. It surpassed $250 million in externally funded analysis for the primary time, launched the biggest complete fundraising marketing campaign in its historical past, carried out a grasp plan for campus development, launched new undergraduate and graduate diploma applications, and opened its Health Sciences Campus.

Savoie additionally oversaw main enhancements to campus, together with the enlargement and renovation of educational buildings, analysis facilities, scholar housing, athletic amenities, and the development of Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium and the Student Union.

Before he was president, Savoie was Louisiana’s commissioner of upper schooling for 12 years. In that function, he served within the cupboards of three Louisiana governors and championed scholar accessibility and affordability. 

He beforehand served his alma mater as its first vice chairman for University Advancement, government director of the Alumni Association, program director for the Union Program Council, scholar authorities adviser and adjunct assistant professor. 

Savoie earned bachelor’s and grasp’s levels from UL Lafayette. He additionally holds a doctorate in academic management from Columbia University’s Teacher’s College in New York. 

Like Savoie, Dr. Jaimie Hebert has deep ties to the campus neighborhood. An Abbeville, La., native, Hebert holds bachelor’s, grasp’s and doctoral levels – all in statistics – from the University. He has been provost and vice chairman for Academic Affairs since 2018. Before returning to his alma mater, Hebert held management roles at a number of establishments, together with serving as president of Georgia Southern University and as provost and vice chairman for Academic Affairs at Sam Houston State University.

As UL Lafayette’s provost, Hebert oversaw the event and implementation of the University’s strategic plan, guided tutorial program development and accreditation, and championed scholar success and college achievement. “Empowering the continued success of his alma mater and its students, and faculty and staff members is at the heart of all that he does,” Savoie mentioned of Hebert in his letter to campus. “With all of you working alongside him, the momentum of achievement that we have built together will continue. I am sure of it.”

Hebert lauded Savoie for his “transformational and selfless service.”

“For 17 years, he led with vision, humor, determination and a deep affection for this place and the people and state it serves. We are all beneficiaries of Dr. Savoie’s leadership, and all that we do moving forward builds on the strong foundation he helped create,” Hebert mentioned.