The LSU Board of Supervisors last week consolidated the positions of the chancellor of the flagship university in Baton Rouge and the system president.

Now those changes are triggering a possible statewide organizational realignment that would affect Shreveport's LSUHSC campus.

"We got our hands on the plan and looked at the organizational realignment and saw that the Chancellor of LSUHSC would be demoted to a Vice President," said Johnette Magner, executive director of the Shreveport-Bossier Business Alliance for Higher Education.

Magner says the plan would essentially strip the LSUHSC system, which includes the Shreveport, Monroe and Alexandria state hospitals, of local control. Local citizens and lawmakers fought for and won that control back in 2000, and it was implemented in 2005.

Sen. Greg Tarver (La. - Dist. 39) says the move cannot be made by the Board of Supervisors without consent from the legislature.

Tarver is sending a letter to the Board of Supervisors advising against the realignment. He's also forwarding the letter to the state attorney general.

"But I think the law is very clear," Tarver said. "So I don't think we are going to have that to happen now. But if they do, I'm going to file suit."

The LSU Board of Supervisors will meet in Baton Rouge at the LSU System Office at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, November 2. It's not clear if they will actually vote on the issue.