Finalist James Dalton, the executive vice president and provost of the University of Alabama, speaks during the LSU Board of Supervisors final meeting in the search for the new LSU president on Tuesday, November 4, 2025.
In a twist, the LSU Board of Supervisors made not one but two senior leadership hires on Tuesday.
In addition to hiring Wade Rousse as the 29th LSU president, they decided to bring back the chancellor position and hire James Dalton.
Dalton, who was one of three finalists in the presidential search, will be the LSU system’s executive vice president and chancellor.
He was most recently the executive vice president and provost at the University of Alabama.
A restructuring
During the presidential search, one issue that surfaced during interviews with the board was whether to return to an administrative structure with separate president and chancellor positions. A chancellor used to oversee the Baton Rouge campus, while the president led the entire, eight-campus system until both roles were combined in 2012.
During his interview, Rousse strongly advocated bringing back a chancellor position to the university, arguing the president’s role should be about leading the system and focusing on the larger, statewide picture.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to separate the roles out again and selected Dalton to serve as the chancellor of the main campus.
Who handles what?
Under the proposed structure laid out by Rousse in his acceptance speech, external affairs, governmental affairs and athletics will report to him. Operations on the flagship campus, the AgCenter, the two health science centers and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center will report to Dalton.
A late addition
Dalton joined the search process just last week. He was added to the candidate list right before the committee began its interviews.
A “student-centric” approach
During the interview process, Dalton said the university needed to prioritize student success through academic support programs and enrollment management.
He discussed the importance of prioritizing students, saying LSU had “to be a student-centric university.”
“If we’re going to admit a student to LSU, we’ve got to do everything that we can to make sure that they’ve got a path out of here with a degree in their hand and a line on a job,” he said.
He’s “boots on the ground”
Dalton responded to some criticism during the interview process that he lacks experience managing an entire university.
“Wow. False,” he said. “I run a university with the president’s guidance, of course, but I’m the boots on the ground every day.”
Dalton said he assists with student and faculty programs, meets with faculty every week, watches faculty research, and oversees a $1.3 billion budget.
