Last month the LSU Board of Supervisors met and voted on a measure to merge two positions together: the LSU system president and chancellor of the flagship campus in Baton Rouge.

The only problem: the plan wasn't on the agenda and the public was not notified.

"It sets a bad example. It sets a bad precedent," said LSU English professor and Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope.

"I can't see how this was not previously planned. That is, for a fully developed, professionally written resolution to appear a few minutes after 5:00 on Friday afternoon spontaneously staggers the imagination," Cope said.

The Louisiana Attorney General's office said this week it has concerns that the board may have violated open meeting laws. The board will vote on the measure again in December.

The Board of Supervisors is pondering a more extensive management overhaul that would mean the local campus would no longer have its own chancellor.

LSUHSC Foundation board member Harold Turner says he's not worried about the merger of two positions. But he is concerned about the realignment and the future leadership structure.

"This community fought long and hard to get a chancellor. And we need to make sure that we don't lose any ground on that position," Turner said.

Johnette Magner, executive director of the Shreveport-Bossier Business Alliance for Higher Education, welcomes the realignment holdup as a way to inject more public input into the decision.

"These are huge changes and they affect more than the flagship campus," said Magner. "They affect all of the institutions in the LSU System. And what we've asked is let's please slow this process down and let the communities that are going to be so greatly affected have input."