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Jaguar Nation
Has GSU savior come?
Grambling State University's new finance vice president, Billy Owens, says he accepted the long-vacant job for two reasons:
?"Dr. [GSU interim president Neari] Warner called so many times a day, and she came to the airport to pick me up herself."
?"It's cold up there [Chicago, where he worked for the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition/Operation PUSH], and it's hot down here."
Warner introduced Owens at a press conference Monday, his first day on the job. Recruiting a chief financial officer has taken 18 months, she said. Along the way, the university has sought help from a number of consultants and brought several candidates to campus.
Owens was one of two finalists under consideration last year, but a search committee led by Faculty Senate president Ellen Smiley declined to recommend him because his $150,000 salary requirement was too high and he refused to submit to a background check. Since then, Warner said, "we negotiated."
Negotiations did not cut back Owens' salary demand, however. At $150,000 he is the highest paid of any campus administrator in the eight-member University of Louisiana System.
"I believe we have the best chief financial officer in this state," Warner said. "He has reminded us [a return to financial accountability standards] won't happen overnight."
The new vice president is familiar with the SCT Banner 2000 accounting software that GSU bought three years ago and that has continued to baffle business office staffers. "We evaluated it at Tuskegee," he said, "and we used it at Medical College of Wisconsin."
Owens had yet to examine GSU's hardware and software systems or assess the data processing and accounting staffs. That will be his first order of business, he said. The second: to meet with Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle.
The university failed state legislative audit standards for 1998, 1999 and 2000. "These issues will not go away overnight, but we will resolve those issues. When you've got to wait on outsiders to tell you something is happening, something is wrong," Owens said.
Those outsiders include the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which requires audited financial statements as a condition of membership and has directed GSU to submit audited statements for 2000 and 2001 to reaffirm its accreditation. It is too late to reopen year 2000 statements, Owens said. "I can't do anything about the past, but our goal is to get an unqualified opinion this year and certainly by next year."
His promise to "be an agent of change" drew applause from an audience of more than 125 faculty and staff members, retirees, UL supervisors Tex Kilpatrick and David Wright, state Sen. Bill Jones, state Rep. Rick Gallot, Mayors John Williams of Grambling and David Aubrey of Homer, and GSU National Alumni Association head James Bradford. "It will take change so we can be where we need to be," GSU's newest administrator declared.
Employees unwilling to change may have to leave, Owens suggested. "A few will suffer because they refuse to be part of the change."
As finance vice president, he plans to find ways to save money and make the campus attractive so students will want to come to GSU. And he expects faculty and staff to pay heed to students: "Instead of beating on the head and chasing them away, we need to look at them as $10,000 [a year]. We need to hug those $10,000s."
GSU's budget is not due until August, so Owens had not seen it. "In most things we do, we've got to have money. And we have to take the dollars we have to create new money."
Owens is the second Southern University accounting graduate in a row to be named GSU's full-fledged chief financial officer. Melvin Davis was hired by GSU President Raymond Hicks, but resigned shortly after Steve Favors became president. Under Davis GSU earned its only perfect audit report, for fiscal year 1997, and for the first time was put on a two-year audit cycle. Owens hopes to bring the university's accounting standards back to that level.
Grambling State University's new finance vice president, Billy Owens, says he accepted the long-vacant job for two reasons:
?"Dr. [GSU interim president Neari] Warner called so many times a day, and she came to the airport to pick me up herself."
?"It's cold up there [Chicago, where he worked for the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition/Operation PUSH], and it's hot down here."
Warner introduced Owens at a press conference Monday, his first day on the job. Recruiting a chief financial officer has taken 18 months, she said. Along the way, the university has sought help from a number of consultants and brought several candidates to campus.
Owens was one of two finalists under consideration last year, but a search committee led by Faculty Senate president Ellen Smiley declined to recommend him because his $150,000 salary requirement was too high and he refused to submit to a background check. Since then, Warner said, "we negotiated."
Negotiations did not cut back Owens' salary demand, however. At $150,000 he is the highest paid of any campus administrator in the eight-member University of Louisiana System.
"I believe we have the best chief financial officer in this state," Warner said. "He has reminded us [a return to financial accountability standards] won't happen overnight."
The new vice president is familiar with the SCT Banner 2000 accounting software that GSU bought three years ago and that has continued to baffle business office staffers. "We evaluated it at Tuskegee," he said, "and we used it at Medical College of Wisconsin."
Owens had yet to examine GSU's hardware and software systems or assess the data processing and accounting staffs. That will be his first order of business, he said. The second: to meet with Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle.
The university failed state legislative audit standards for 1998, 1999 and 2000. "These issues will not go away overnight, but we will resolve those issues. When you've got to wait on outsiders to tell you something is happening, something is wrong," Owens said.
Those outsiders include the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which requires audited financial statements as a condition of membership and has directed GSU to submit audited statements for 2000 and 2001 to reaffirm its accreditation. It is too late to reopen year 2000 statements, Owens said. "I can't do anything about the past, but our goal is to get an unqualified opinion this year and certainly by next year."
His promise to "be an agent of change" drew applause from an audience of more than 125 faculty and staff members, retirees, UL supervisors Tex Kilpatrick and David Wright, state Sen. Bill Jones, state Rep. Rick Gallot, Mayors John Williams of Grambling and David Aubrey of Homer, and GSU National Alumni Association head James Bradford. "It will take change so we can be where we need to be," GSU's newest administrator declared.
Employees unwilling to change may have to leave, Owens suggested. "A few will suffer because they refuse to be part of the change."
As finance vice president, he plans to find ways to save money and make the campus attractive so students will want to come to GSU. And he expects faculty and staff to pay heed to students: "Instead of beating on the head and chasing them away, we need to look at them as $10,000 [a year]. We need to hug those $10,000s."
GSU's budget is not due until August, so Owens had not seen it. "In most things we do, we've got to have money. And we have to take the dollars we have to create new money."
Owens is the second Southern University accounting graduate in a row to be named GSU's full-fledged chief financial officer. Melvin Davis was hired by GSU President Raymond Hicks, but resigned shortly after Steve Favors became president. Under Davis GSU earned its only perfect audit report, for fiscal year 1997, and for the first time was put on a two-year audit cycle. Owens hopes to bring the university's accounting standards back to that level.
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