Louisiana State University System. Office of Academic Affairs.

The Vice President for Academic Affairs serves as the chief academic officer of the Louisiana State University System, reporting directly to the System President. The office coordinates the undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, activities, and divisions of the University System; reviews academic personnel actions such as tenure review and promotion; makes recommendations on the naming of chaired professorships, changes in academic programs, and other issues; and coordinates technology transfer efforts at all LSU System campuses.

In 1969, the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) notified ten states, among them Louisiana, that they were maintaining a racially-based dual system of higher education in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. HEW required all ten states to submit plans for desegregation of their higher education systems, but Louisiana refused to provide plans. In 1981, the U.S. Justice Department and Louisiana agreed to a court-approved Consent Decree by which Louisiana agreed to seek to improve racial diversity at its public institutions of higher education through detailed recruitment plans for students, staff, and faculty; to enhance programs, facilities, and faculty at historically black institutions; to distribute desirable degree programs equitably; and to institute cooperative programs and activities between historically black and white universities. Just before the expiration of the Consent Decree in 1987, the Department of Justice moved that Louisiana had not fulfilled its obligations under the decree. A court-appointed Special Master formulated a plan in 1989, but a series of remedial orders were vacated after extended litigation between 1988 and 1993. All parties to the lawsuit eventually reached a 10-year Settlement Agreement in 1994.