The Southern University Board of Supervisors voted to not extend the contract of system president Ronald Mason, which expires on June 30, 2015. Dr. Mason has served as system president since July 2010. Earlier in his career, he was president of Jackson State University in Mississippi and served in several administrative posts at Tulane University in New Orleans.
In June, Dr. Mason detailed a list of demands that he said would be needed for him to continue on as system president. His plan called for a reorganization of the system structure so that the main campus at Baton Rouge would be under the control of the system’s president office. Dr. Mason claimed the plan would save $2 million. Dr. Mason also wanted a commitment from the board to an effort to transform Southern University into one of the best five HBCUs in the country and to raise its academic standing to be among the 200 best public universities in the nation within seven years.
Earlier this year the faculty senate at the Baton Rouge campus approved a vote of no confidence in Mason and later called on the board to fire Dr. Mason.
Dr. Mason said that his present plan is to return to teaching at the Southern University Law Center when his contract expires but also mentioned that other universities were interested in hiring him.
President Mason is a graduate of Columbia University and the Columbia Law School.
As a faculty member at JSU , I am so delighted Mason is out. During his tenure at JSU he mismanaged funds and he hired incompetent administrators, with fake degrees and no leadership skills, and paid them lavishly in the expense of faculty. JSU will not recover from Mason’s era and will pay a big price for his misconduct. Of course he got a vote of no confidence at JSU. Getting rid of this guy is a good news for Southern. He does not know anything about higher education. Two HBCU’s has suffered under him tremendously
Such strong words for one of the finest visionary administrators in the country. President Mason is bright and has his hands on the pulse of what it means to be college educated in the 21st century. He also understands the real challenges that virtually all HBCU’s face in the 21st century. Nowhere has it been reported that he mismanaged anything, so that should be retracted pronto. I support administrators that call for the raising of the standard, for students and faculty. Dr. Mason is now President at The University of the District of Columbia.
Alfred Duckett, Associate Professor JSUMS.
Dr. Mason was one of the pillers of JSU academic progress. While at JSU, he brought million of dollars to JSU and partially explained why JSU is one of the best universities in the country.