Southern University’s presidential search committee announced Friday that the pool of candidates for the job of system president and chancellor of the system’s Baton Rouge campus is down to six.
The list includes several with connections to the system, including Dr. Ray Belton, current chancellor of the Shreveport campus and a Southern University alumnus; Dr. Ivory Toldson, deputy director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs; former Savannah State University president Dr. Earl Yarbrough Sr.; and Southern University at New Orleans Chancellor Dr. Victor Ukpolo. Former Tuskegee University President Dr. Gilbert Rochon and Barrett Hatches, president and CEO of the Chicago Family Health Center, are also on the list.
Belton is a graduate of both Southern University at Shreveport (with an associate degree) and the system’s main campus in Baton Rouge. He also has a master’s degree in counseling from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin.
Toldson—who received his undergraduate
degree at Louisiana State University, his master’s in counselor education from Penn State University, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Temple University—started his teaching career as an assistant professor of psychology at Southern University at Baton Rouge. He is currently a faculty member on leave at Howard University.
Yarbrough was a previous finalist for the position of chancellor of Southern University at Baton Rouge in 2011 and has again surfaced as a contender for the job of system president/SUBR chancellor. He received his bachelor’s degree from Wichita State University, a master’s from California State University, Los Angeles, and his Ph.D. in industrial education from Iowa State University.
