Southeastern Louisiana University

Randy Moffett to address Southeastern graduates

Contact: Rene Abadie

5/2/11

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     HAMMOND – Randy Moffett, president of the University of Louisiana System and former president of Southeastern Louisiana University, will serve as commencement speaker at Southeastern’s spring graduation ceremonies on Saturday, May 14.
     Scheduled at 10 a.m. at the University Center, the ceremony will recognize more than 1,200 students receiving bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees.
     Four students will be “hooded” as they receive the Doctor of Education degree: Jason E. Hanks of Baton Rouge, Deborah G. Janssen of Mandeville, Kayla Marie Lamonte of Hammond, and Fnu Mihir, a native of Rachur, India, and now working in Norwalk, Conn.
     Moffett became the seventh president of the state’s largest university system in July 2008, after having served seven years as president of Southeastern, one of eight regional universities that make up the University of Louisiana System. While at Southeastern, he oversaw the university’s transition from an open-admissions institution to one that embraced admission standards ahead of the state’s required time schedule. Under his administration, the university maintained a strong enrollment of approximately 15,000, making it the third largest university in the state.
     In his role at the UL System, Moffett has overseen a comprehensive economic and community impact study of all institutions in the system, partnered with the Louisiana Department of Education to establish mentoring programs at all eight universities, and established a cost containment and efficiencies committee to streamline operations. Over the past three years, he guided the search process and selection of four university presidents and led the system’s universities through a series of budget reductions while improving operational efficiency, accountability and performance.
     In 2009 Gov. Bobby Jindal appointed Moffett to serve as a Louisiana representative on the Southern Regional Education Board, a nonprofit organization that works with educational leaders and policy makers in 16 member states. Active in community affairs, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Hammond Chamber of Commerce and has been active with the United Way. He has served as vice chair of Louisiana Campus Compact, a coalition of college and university presidents committed to the civic purposes of higher education, and on the President’s Leadership Group of the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention.
     Moffett is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University who earned his master’s degree from Northwestern State University and a doctorate in educational administration from LSU. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate from the Ibero-American Council for Excellence in Education, a council of 18 agencies in Latin America.