Louisiana Tech’s president for the past 26 years, Dan Reneau, will be stepping down in 2013.
Reneau, who will depart June 30, has overseen steady growth in both enrollment and academics during his tenure.
The school’s Department of Biomedical Engineering Department, which the engineering professor helped establish in 1972, has become known nationally and was one of the first of its kind in the United States. As president, Reneau also oversaw the creation of the Institute for Micromanufacturing and Enterprise Campus Research Park.
Even as the university early on embraced higher admission standards, enrollment remained healthy.
Most recently, Reneau championed the failed merger of Tech with LSU-Shreveport. Reneau and others viewed the merger as a way for the Ruston-based university to gain access to north Louisiana’s largest population center and to expand educational offerings for Shreveport-Bossier. If the merger had been approved by state lawmakers, Reneau had pledged to delay his retirement to oversee its implementation. Instead Reneau joins LSUS Chancellor Vince Marsala in retirement. Marsala left his post June 30.
Reneau said he’ll continue to provide support to Louisiana Tech through the establishment of an independent “think tank” within the Louisiana Tech University Foundation that will act as an advisory and advocacy group to the university’s administration and Foundation, and will help to support and advance Louisiana Tech.