PLATTEVILLE — Dennis Shields, UW-Platteville Chancellor, is one of three finalists to run a Louisiana university system.
Shields is a finalist to be the president-chancellor of the Southern University System, whose main campus is in Baton Rouge, La., with other campuses in New Orleans and Shreveport, La. The nation’s only historically black university system has 13,000 students.
On-campus interviews with Shields and the other two finalists, including meetings with the Southern University Board of Supervisors and university employees, students and alumni, are being held this week.
Shields has been chancellor of UW-Platteville since 2010. Since he was chancellor UW-Platteville built two dormitories, Rountree Commons and Bridgeview Commons, renovated Boebel Hall, and is building Sesquicentennial Hall, a new engineering building. Shields also oversaw campus repairs following the June 2014 tornado. Enrollment reached nearly 10,000 students in the mid-2010s thanks in part to the Tri-State Initiative to bring in students from Illinois and Iowa.
Shields also incorporated the former UW Center-Richland and Baraboo/Sauk County campuses into UWP after the Legislature merged all UW two-year campuses into its four-year universities.
Shields also had to make several million dollars in budget cuts, including position cuts, following cuts in state funding in the early 2010s and enrollment drops in the late 2010s.
Shields previously was a finalist for the presidency of Chicago State University, but was not chosen, and Wright State University in Ohio, but withdrew from consideration.
Shields graduated from Graceland College in Iowa and earned a law degree from the University of Iowa. He worked in admissions for the Iowa, University of Michigan and Duke University law schools and was dean of the University of Phoenix Law School and was acting vice president for student affairs at City College of New York before becoming UWP chancellor in 2010,
The other finalists are Lawrence Alexander, chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and Walter Kimbrogh, president of Dillard University in New Orleans.
“This is a very important matter for the Southern University System and Southern University and A&M College,” said Alfred Harrell, co-chair of the search committee. “We are excited about moving forward with this process.”