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LSU Graduate School dean ousted

LSU has quietly and unceremoniously ousted Graduate School Dean William Worger after just eight months on the job.

LSU leaders are calling it a private personnel matter, and Worger did not respond to a request for comment.

But some LSU graduate students who support Worger are angrily demanding answers and a meeting with LSU Provost Astrid Merget, who is the university’s chief academic officer.

Electrical engineering graduate student Charisma Edwards ,of Houston, said the Graduate School has been unstable for years. She said Worger was ruffling feathers but making the necessary changes to boost enrollment and diversity.

“What happened? Tell us something,” Edwards said Wednesday. “As graduate students we deserve explanations for the extreme instability in the Graduate School. It’s been a revolving door.”

Kip Britton, a graduate assistant to Worger, said the graduate dean was apparently punished for being “student-centered” and not a “policy-centered” yes man. Britton said LSU’s Graduate School is “extremely resistant to change,” seemingly anti-diversity and not student-friendly until Worger’s arrival last year.

Britton and a handful of others are circulating a petition to get Worger reinstated.
Read entire article at http://www.2theadvocate.com