21 July 2025
By Piper Hutchinson
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — The Southern University System Board of Supervisors has named Louisiana Sen. Joe Bouie, D-New Orleans, as the next chancellor of its New Orleans campus, a position from which he was once fired.
The board unanimously voted Friday to give Bouie the job, which will come with a $275,000 salary. Bouie will start in the position Aug. 1, and the contract runs through July 31, 2028.
Bouie, 78, has served in the state Senate since 2020 and was in the Louisiana House from 2014-20. He is eligible to serve through the end of 2032 if re-elected.
Sen. Joseph Bouie stands at the podium in the Senate Chamber.
Photo by Allison Allsop/La. Illuminator
“SUNO raised me. Actually, it saved my life,” Bouie, a SUNO graduate, said in comments to the board. “When you talk about the legacy of SUNO, you’re talking about access, you’re talking about academic excellence and success.”
Bouie has not yet responded to a request for comment as to whether he intends to leave his Senate seat. State law prohibits individuals from being employed or holding office in two separate branches of government, though some have held legislative seats and worked in higher education, which falls under the executive branch. State Rep. Barbara Carpenter, D-Baton Rouge, is currently the dean of international education at Southern University.
Current Southern University at New Orleans Chancellor James Ammons did not publicly announce he was stepping down before the board meeting last Friday and the faculty only heard of his departure about a week before. There was no search for his replacement, as is standard practice for top administrator positions across higher education in the United States.
“Some will say they should be a global search, but why do a search when you have the best person for the job?,” Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, said in comments to the board in support of Bouie.
Ammons has not yet responded to a request for comment for this report.
Bouie, a social work professor, was previously the chancellor of the small historically Black university in the early 2000s, but was dismissed from the position in 2002. At the time, Bouie said he believed he was fired because he removed the wife of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson from a top administrative position at SUNO.
“I was fired … because I refused to participate in political nepotism,” Bouie told the news outlet Diverse Issues in Higher Ed.
Current Southern board chairman Tony Clayton, the district attorney for Iberville, Pointe Coupee, and West Baton Rouge parishes, was the board member that led the charge to have Bouie dismissed, according to multiple news outlets.
After being removed as chancellor, Bouie returned to his faculty position, later serving as SUNO Faculty Senate president. As a professor and faculty leader, Bouie was frequently critical of the administration and in 2012 called on the system president to remove Chancellor Victor Ukpolo for unethical behavior, dereliction of duty to protect SUNO’s accreditation and a slow response to repair Hurricane Katrina-related damage.
Ukpolo stepped down from the chancellor position in 2016 after 10 years. Since then, a series of administrators has led the campus. Ammons has held the post since 2021. He held the position on an interim basis after Lisa Mims-Devezin requested her contract not be renewed just months after SUNO was placed on probation by its accreditor.
While Bouie may continue to serve in the Senate, doing so while holding an intensive administrative job could prove difficult. Many legislators are only able to serve in the statehouse because of flexible job situations. For example, attorney-lawmakers are able to take advantage of legislative continuances to postpone court appearances to handle their legislative duties.
This article originally published in the July 21, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.