Louisiana

LSU librarians can thrive outside of the tenure framework, dean says • Louisiana Illuminator

Published

1 year ago

September 4, 2024

LSU librarians can thrive outside of the tenure framework, dean says • Louisiana Illuminator

Editor’s note: The following commentary was submitted in response to an Aug. 20, 2024 report from the Illuminator: “LSU changes tenure rules for librarians to improve its research rankings,” by Piper Hutchinson

In August, LSU announced that it would no longer hire librarians to tenure-track positions.

The University offered two justifications for the move: LSU’s aspiration for American Association of Universities status, and the chronic difficulty involved in evaluating the promotion and tenure portfolios of faculty who teach no classes and have just 15% of their time allocated to research.

For some of LSU’s library faculty, the elimination of future tenure track appointments felt like a devaluing of their work, and one that could lead to further diminishment and disinvestment.

While I empathize with the concerns of our disappointed librarians, I believe that this move will improve the work lives of librarians generally. Speaking as a research library director with career long research interests, I am fully committed to a model of academic librarianship which involves significant engagement with the literature of our profession, the publication of new knowledge, and service contributions such as leadership in professional associations. My experience, however, leads me to believe that these behaviors can exist, even thrive outside the framework of tenure. They certainly do at the 79% of AAU institutions that do not offer librarians tenure.

The controversy over librarian tenure has shown us all how deeply enmeshed the issue is in foundational values and beliefs that might otherwise go unchallenged. I am as guilty of ignoring my own assumptions as anyone, and it’s taken this abrupt change to make me take stock of what I currently believe. I’ve ended up with the following five principles:

Respect for the role

However research librarian positions are configured, in practice they need to operate as full partners in the academic process. Teaching and curricular support, the provision of student success services, and collection building all require deep professional expertise, and all require full engagement with teaching faculty, Faculty Senate, and campus-wide committees. It is further appropriate for research librarian positions to offer the protections offered teaching faculty. NC State University provides “academic tenure” to their non tenure track faculty, which differs from “permanent tenure” only in that it is bounded within the contract period of employment.

Respect for tenure

Tenure at most of America’s best universities is reserved for those who do significant teaching and research, and who do those jobs extremely well. Teaching is entirely absent from many librarian positions, and for nearly all, conducting original research is peripheral to their primary responsibilities.

Scaffolding and rewards for research and service

The appointment and promotion of research librarians needs to encourage and reward innovation and substantive contributions to the profession. Engagement of this sort will not suit every librarian, but for those who actively seek out this kind of professional life, libraries should provide mentorship programs, internal peer coaching, travel budgets, and allowance for continuing education of all kinds.

Scaffolding and rewards for excellence in librarianship

A common trope in higher education bemoans faculty reward structures that discount excellence in teaching. The analog in research libraries are librarians who are extraordinarily good at the job they’re hired for, only to lose their jobs as a result of inadequate publication activity. Librarian ranks need to recognize excellent work, and provide consequential promotion and compensation rewards. The mentor programs and peer coaching mentioned above can easily be adapted so as to support those oriented towards workplace excellence.

Producing value

There is an additional cost that flows from shoehorning librarian contributions into evaluation and promotion documents built for teaching faculty. That awkward effort also impairs our ability to highlight and reward the dazzling breadth of work our librarians do in serving faculty and students. Now more than ever, we need those contributions to be visible, inescapable really, all across campus. Doing so will come naturally to a profession that has transformed itself so completely over the past 25 years. Excellent research libraries are a university’s competitive edge, and it is their librarians that make them so.

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Louisiana

Louisiana lands another $10 billion AI data center

Published

4 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Louisiana lands another billion AI data center

Hut 8 is building a new $10 billion artificial intelligence data center in Louisiana’s West Feliciana Parish.
The project is expected to employ more than 1,000 construction workers at its peak.
AI company Anthropic has signed a long-term deal to use the new facility.
This is the second major data center project announced in Louisiana, following Meta’s investment in Richland Parish.

Louisiana has finalized details on another $10 billion data center, this one from Hut 8 in West Feliciana Parish.,

Hut 8, which develops and operates an integrated portfolio of power, digital infrastructure and compute assets, said more than 1,000 construction workers will be on site of its River Bend artificial intelligence (AI) data center campus at its peak.

Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company whose flagship chatbot is Claude, has signed a long-term deal to use the facility, Hut 8 and the state announced Dec. 17.

“It’s a transformational and generational project for our parish and region,” West Feliciana Parish President Kenny Havard said in an interview with USA Today Network. “The possibilities really are endless.”

The official announcement and details come after months of preparation from the parish government and its partnership with the state for the data center on which construction has been underway for months.

It’s the second $10 billion plus data center announced in Louisiana during the past two years. Meta’s massive data center project is under way in northeastern Louisiana’s Richland Parish. Meta originally announced a $10 billion investment but has since increased that scope to at least $25 billion.

“Hut 8’s investment in River Bend builds on our track record of attracting global-scale projects in the industries of the future,” Gov. Jeff Landry said in a statement. “As the campus grows, it will further cement Louisiana’s position as a national leader in energy and innovation, creating thousands of jobs and reaffirming our ability to compete and win on the global stage.”

Construction is scheduled to be complete in the second quarter of 2027.

“River Bend demonstrates that Louisiana’s economic strategy is taking our state from plans to progress,” Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said in a statement. “This project will generate high-wage jobs and create pathways for Louisianans to build long-term careers in the industries of the future. It’s a clear example of how aligning policy, partnership and people translates into lasting opportunity.”

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.

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Louisiana

Louisiana man arrested for allegedly planning attack in New Orleans – UPI.com

Published

16 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Louisiana man arrested for allegedly planning attack in New Orleans – UPI.com

Dec. 16 (UPI) — A suspect identified as Micah James Legnon has been arrested by agents from the FBI’s New Iberia office for allegedly planning an attack on federal agents.

Legnon, 29, was a member of the Turtle Island Liberation Front and had communicated with four members who were charged with allegedly planning a series of New Year’s Eve terrorist attacks in the Greater Los Angeles area on Monday, WDSU reported.

He is a resident of New Iberia and was arrested on Friday while driving to New Orleans after FBI agents saw him loading a military-style rifle and body armor into his vehicle and telling others in a Signal chat group that he was traveling to New Orleans.

New Iberia is located about 120 miles west of New Orleans, and Legnon allegedly shared a video that showed multiple firearms, gas canisters and body armor before leaving on Friday.

In that post, Legnon said he was “On my way to NOLA now, be there in about two hours,” but the FBI arrested him while driving east on U.S. Highway 90, according to WWL-TV.

In a Dec. 4 post, Legnon shared a Facebook post showing Customs and Border Protection agents arresting someone and said he wanted to “recreate Waco, Texas,” on the federal officers while referencing the 1993 federal siege on the Branch Davidians compound there.

He is a former Marine who was trained in combat and a self-professed satanist who used the alias “Black Witch” in group chats with four suspects accused of targeting locations throughout California.

Federal prosecutors filed a federal complaint against Legnon and asked the magistrate judge to seal it and related records due to an ongoing investigation.

They asked that it be unsealed on Tuesday, which is a day after the four suspects accused of planning the California terror attacks were charged with related crimes.

The FBI said Legnon had been communicating with the four suspects in California before the arrests were made and charges filed in the respective cases.

The Turtle Island Liberation Front is a far-left, anti-government, anti-capitalist and pro-Palestinian group, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

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Louisiana

Louisiana gets $15 million for literacy tutoring study initiative

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Louisiana gets million for literacy tutoring study initiative

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — The Louisiana Department of Education announced Tuesday it was awarded $15 million to lead a study on the increasing impact of high-dosage tutoring.

The grant came from the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research program. State education leaders said the money will fund a five-year study to expand the impact of high-dosage literacy tutoring for students in grades 1-2 who are below grade level in reading.

“Louisiana has shown what’s possible when states are trusted to lead,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Education for their confidence in our strategy and for investing in a Louisiana-designed solution to accelerate student literacy.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said making literacy outcomes stronger throughout the nation is one of her top priorities.

“Every dollar from this year’s EIR awards will support the use and expansion of evidence-based literacy instruction, expand education choice, and empower grant recipients to build and sustain high-quality literacy support systems for students. This is a huge opportunity for states to lead, and they are rising to the occasion,” she said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, who joined McMahon in an August education roundtable in Baton Rouge, celebrated the funding. “Strong literacy skills are the foundation for everything that comes next in school and in life,” he said. “Louisiana has shown real progress, and this funding helps take what’s working and expand it so more students can succeed.”

Schools with low literacy proficiency rates will be prioritized. Air Reading, Studyyville, Johns Hopkins University and Louisiana higher education institutions will be key partnerships in the project.