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KTBS Podcasting and the Committee of 100 present Good to Know Shreveport-Bossier, a podcast series showcasing the good things happening in our area. We’ll go in-depth about economic development, community growth and other topics about initiatives that are having a positive impact in our community. We’ll have new episodes every other Wednesday. You can find the KTBS Good to Know podcast wherever you listen to podcasting. Or go to KTBS.com or KTBS Now on your streaming device to see the full interview.
Hey. Hello again.
Everybody. Welcome to Good to Know
Shreveport-Bossier.
This is a podcast in which we showcase
all the good things, the positive things
happening around our community.
My name is Jeff Lynne for over here.
We can't get rid of them, although we try.
This is my co-host Paul Reiser.
He's he's a local businessman.
He's a member of the committee of 100,
and he's got a master's degree in French.
Fry flipping
say that three times real fast.
Anyway, every podcast
we focus on topics, initiatives,
having positive impacts on our community.
We have new episodes available
every other Wednesday, and you can find
good to know
wherever you listen to your podcast.
And as always, the honor to introduce
our very special guests belong to Mr.
Reiser. Thank you Jeff.
Thank you for another entertaining
and generous introduction of me.
I'm always here to be generous with you.
well, speaking of generous,
our community Shreveport-Bossier
is generous with great guests.
We always have an opportunity
to have. Fantastic.
We do a lot today. No exception.
And as usual, your intro is like,
mind numbingly long.
Go going.
Well, Jeff, I'm sure you're familiar
with the local university.
Louisiana, Shreveport University,
Shreveport, LSU, Shreveport, another LSU?
Yeah. Very good. Yes, I am familiar.
I thought you might be.
Well, are you aware that it is
one of the few universities in the country
that is actually increasing and
not only new students, but new programs?
I knew they were increasing.
I didn't know they were
one of the only few in the country.
Very few. It's hard to do.
That's impressive.
So to find out why we're growing
and all the great things going on,
we have the Chancellor here
and at some point in our future
we will get around to his name perhaps.
Well, once we start, you take over
and I just have to sit here, so.
But no, doctor Robert Smith is here today.
He has got numerous undergraduate
degrees, master's degree
and doctorate in mathematics, which is.
That's impressive.
Very similar to us very much.
But his main I think
although you could count French fries.
Well, I think I can count to, 3.5oz.
that was our
standard order for French fries right now.
About 3.5oz. Okay, so.
But that's frozen. Wait,
that's not a good point.
He kicks out some of the weight.
Okay, regardless,
let's get back to the good doctor.
I wish you would also,
multiple, leadership programs
he's been through
and including Harvard University.
But his biggest claim to fame,
I think, is how much he cares
about students,
the success of the students at LSU.
So we're super happy and proud
and thankful to have you here today.
Doctor Smith,
thanks for joining us. Well, good morning.
I'm thrilled to be here. Well.
And did you are you happy to have
you didn't have a show on anytime.
I'm not out there.
And anytime I can talk about
LSU Shreveport I am I'm there.
Well, we're going to get into some of
what will you say has been very it's been,
very successful as of late.
And you've been there about a year now.
I have almost 13 months. Okay.
Nothing. I'm counting.
I know the feeling.
So almost a year now. Just kidding.
Well, the go ahead.
I don't stop me, I don't.
That one fell flat at the start. Maddox.
but I guess
you know what brought you to Shreveport?
What made you want to take over
this program?
So, there was an opportunity, here
with Larry Clark retiring.
I had been looking for a presidency.
I've been a vice president,
and provost for eight years.
two different institutions in Georgia.
And, this opportunity came up,
and I'll be I'll be candid with you.
I've told people the story
the week before I was here, six days
before I visited, I was I was on a visit
for a presidential opportunity,
and I came here.
I told my wife before I left,
I think that's I think that's the one
I'm going to go through the interview
in Shreveport.
But I think that's the one that made
you think that, you know, every
everything I saw about the place
just it seemed like they,
they needed somebody with
with my particular skill set.
and I loved the location.
I loved everything about it.
I got here, I went through the interview,
I got back to the hotel,
I called my wife, and I said, okay,
I got it wrong.
This is the right one.
This is where I want to be nice
and and it and
it was that way
because it was a daylong interview.
You know, I got back to the hotel at 830
at 9:00 at night, and every single person
I met with on this campus
and I met with a lot of people,
were focused singularly
on the success of our students
and what we were doing.
for students in this community.
And I thought, this,
this is the right place.
Does that does that not always the case
in other on other campuses? No.
So I mean, I you know,
I certainly don't want to want to discuss
this any other, any other places
but some place,
some institutions can be a little bit
introspective.
Right. Looking inward.
And this campus is looking toward
our students and towards the community.
and, and I saw that
in every single person I met.
And, and I remember telling you that
this is an elaborate hoax of some sort.
A ruse. Right.
Or or this is the real thing.
And it's the real thing.
Nice. Good to hear that. Yeah.
So, you know,
you talk about your particular skill set
and your passion for growing kids.
And I want to talk about
just how much were growing in a minute
because it is phenomenal.
But I think I read a little
something about you
that I think gives you extra, insight
into the student life in that
you were the first member of your family
to ever graduate college or go to college.
both.
Well, I have my I have an older brother
who did two years of college,
but I was the first in my line to,
to go through college and to graduate
and look at you.
Now you're on. Good to know. Yeah,
man, you
didn't really need that degree, did you?
I would never have anticipated that.
And, you know,
and we are highly first generation.
You're 60% first generation LSU,
Shreveport, first generation students
that have never don't have any family
whose parents had never gone to college.
My parents never had the opportunity.
My parents that were World
War Two era parents.
My dad got a an all expense paid trip
to Western Europe, courtesy of the U.S.
Army. Wow. in patents, third Army.
And, well, this was just not
a, an opportunity for them.
and, that's it's that way
for 60% of our undergraduates at LSU.
At LSU.
Yes, yes. Wow.
And and that's that's not
that's not common either.
I was going to say
that seems a little surprising.
It it is. Yeah, it is,
but it's what we do.
And I think we're very, very good at it.
Okay.
Before we move on, I have to ask you,
this is probably going to be
the most important question for the day.
Okay.
So when I was a kid
growing up in Saint Louis, there was a,
children's show
that came on every afternoon.
it was how do you duty?
How do you do a show with puppets?
No relation, you know.
No, I know where you're going.
Well, Buffalo. Buffalo.
hum. Oh, no.
Oh, absolutely.
I'm old enough to remember
Buffalo Bob and.
No, no relation whatsoever.
Well, that was
I was crying in the back of my mind
ever since we got introduced
a few minutes ago.
I had to ask the question. So.
So you don't mind?
Not at all.
It happens all the time. Okay,
I bet it does.
For those of our, our listening audience
who actually are interested
in business and Shreveport and things
that are growing and get tired of me and,
Jeff eventually talking.
I'm already hard to believe, but.
So why is LSU growing so much
and how much is it growing?
I said it's growing,
but not just by 1 or 2 students a year.
Oh, gosh. No.
we are growing at a, at an incred clip.
this, this summer we were up
20% year over year in summer enrollment.
and summers,
you know, not our not our main thing,
but our spring enrollment
for the first time in our history
this past spring,
we we top 10,000 students.
Wow. That's that was up 17%
over spring of 2023.
That that's that's unheard of.
Yeah. And for fall.
And I'll just give you a preview.
the numbers are not final until students.
Students are here and and on campus.
but we, we look like
we're up double digits again for fall,
so we may hit yet
another record enrollment.
So what are the reasons for this?
So I, you know,
I think there's there's a couple, first,
we have programs that students want
and we have programs that are meeting
workforce needs in the community.
Okay.
And that's a that's a dynamic combination.
right.
But I think there's a third thing,
and that is that we support our students
once, once we don't just
get them into our programs, but
we support them in very substantive ways.
So we've built something called
the Student Success Center.
we have, we have face to face tutoring.
We have online tutoring.
We just we just acquired
and we're going to roll out
and in a few weeks, a new, app
that students can put on their phones,
that'll be it'll be like a rideshare app.
So, hey, I need a tutor in.
Oh, wow. Chemistry, on Tuesday.
And and they're.
And they will connect the student
with a tutor in chemistry.
That's great.
And so we're I think we've been very,
very intentional
about supporting our students.
our faculty and our staff are,
are enthusiastic for the mission
that we're we're accomplishing.
our faculty are out in the community,
working with, with, with public schools
and, and private schools
and, with businesses and so on.
And I think,
all of this has come together
to, to lead to, you know, rapidly
increasing enrollments.
I have to say, I was I was at a conference
in Orlando in December,
and I met a lot of,
a lot of my friends from around the South
who were presidents or chancellors and,
and, and, and they were telling me,
oh, it's really it's a good year.
You know, we're only down.
Oh, really? Yeah.
It's a really good year in Louisiana.
We're only up 17%.
And there was a little bit
little part of me
that was guilt and felt guilty
about saying that.
But there was a little part
of me was like, yeah, I want to say this.
We are up
and you go, LSU as a whole is up.
and I think, you know, we have a very
attractive, attractive product.
LSU has the reputation,
well, outside of Louisiana, it's
one of the few institutions
with a three letter name
that everybody in the country
recognizes immediately.
Well, I was going to ask you, aside
from that reputation,
is the campus here in Shreveport
garnering attention around the country?
Yeah, I think we clearly are.
We we we we have won, recognition.
So, we we were noted this year as the top
ranking institution
in the state of Louisiana.
The only one in the top 20%
for social mobility,
which is a score, measuring how
well you move students from,
Pell eligibility, which means they're in,
they need the maximum financial
aid on to good paying jobs.
And that's, that's the
that's the mission. Right.
That is getting theoretically
why you're supposed to go to college.
Absolutely.
Supposed to.
Yeah. What to contribute
back to the community. Yeah.
And to improve your family,
financial status. Right.
Secure your future. Yeah.
And I think our students
and we haven't even touched
on, the graduate level program.
I know the business school
there is growing by leaps and bounds.
Absolutely.
our MBA is in the top
ten nationally, in enrollment.
We have our MBA has more than 5000
students.
And. Wow.
And when they when I first heard that,
that's like,
is that like half your campus?
That's half our campus.
And when I first heard that,
I said, no, no, that can't be right.
Nobody has 5000 students. What we do.
Yeah.
Our MHR, is oh, it's way smaller.
It's only 1200 students, which is
unbelievably large and it's growing.
What's the masters of Health
Administration?
Health administration. Right.
Because remember, we're we're a hub
for health care in Shreveport.
Right.
And and they need people who are,
who are trained and to progress
and be in leadership roles.
Well, 1200 sounds like a lot. It is.
Yeah. I was in a large graduate program.
We had maybe 100 students.
1200 is just unbelievable.
Hey, can I can I flip a little bit?
Can I ask you a,
a sports related question?
Sure.
So you had a heck of a basketball coach
this past year.
He did an amazing thing coaching
both the men's
and the women's team, taking them
both to the national tournament.
That's outstanding stuff.
We think, in our data on
that's not readily available,
we believe he is the only college coach
to ever coach a men's and women's team.
The same year
and bring them to a tournament
the same year that he coaches
the men's and women's team.
Yeah.
Oh, well,
you had it. The women's coach quit, right?
He quit.
he quit. And,
you know, at that point in the season,
we were not able to pick somebody up.
And and so we approached,
we approached Coach
Blankenship and said, now,
do you think you'd be able to do both?
And,
it was a quite a sacrifice on his part.
Sure. It was.
but he he's fantastic.
He's going to be recognized
in New Orleans,
with, with with, a really big award.
Yeah, I'm sure he is.
Are you going to hire a women's coach now?
Are you going to keep going?
We already have. Oh, yeah.
We we like him very much.
We want to keep him.
We want to keep him. Yeah.
So is campus life growing then at LSU ish,
you've got the sports,
you've got the growing student body.
Absolutely.
So when when I say we're we're growing
and the NBA is leading the way.
That's absolutely true.
but we're growing in online.
We're growing face to face.
We're growing undergraduate.
We're growing graduate.
Every place you look, we're growing.
And I got a report, just the other day
that our housing, for the first time,
we had more applications
for housing than we had spots available.
So we're scratching our heads
about that right now.
We're so housing at LSU is that they have
dorms or we don't have dorms, per se.
a few years ago,
we purchased the Pilots Pointe Apartments,
which are, adjacent to campus.
They were, privately owned.
they're now university owned and,
running full tilt at this point.
Okay.
So, I know we want it out of the dorms
as soon as possible.
We wanted apartments anyway.
Everybody wants out.
nope.
Nobody likes the old style
that when we were in college, you know,
central bathroom. Great.
You know, shared bathroom.
And so nobody wants that anymore.
So, if we get to the point of adding,
residence hall space,
it will be apartment style residence
halls, which is what our kids want.
Yeah. That's smart.
I gotta go back to sports
for just a minute.
How important is that
to, the the overall health of the campus?
You're growing it.
So it's it's really important
because it gives students, student,
not just student athletes,
but but students
who want to go to a basketball game
at night or two.
Basketball game.
Want to go to a baseball game?
we have championship sports.
So, you know, we're we're not LSU,
we're not Division one, right?
We're nya nya.
But we win championships.
And so it's it's
part of what makes a campus exciting.
What other sports do you have.
Yeah, basketball.
And we have men's women's basketball.
We have baseball.
we have men's and women's soccer.
And we have tennis, women's
tennis and mini volleyball.
Well, it's an interesting question.
Not I'll say not yet.
Yeah. Okay.
But we're we are exploring it right now.
Yeah. So do I.
I used to play it. Yeah. It's
great sport. It it is.
And I think we could accommodate it
pretty easily.
And we are actually running
the numbers on it now as we speak.
Okay.
Do you have a little intuition Paul
I know you think I don't.
Incredible intuition.
You're so empathetic.
I know my intuition told me
to not go to Sonic.
And I have this worked out
about 3.5oz of fries.
Maybe I can turn that,
what is in my head?
So what are some of the fastest growing?
You said you have things that students
want and what helping people get jobs.
So what are some of the most popular
classes and curriculums on campus?
So so the
the MBA and the Ma are far and away.
And that's not just kids.
And that's like I know a lot of adults
who they have a job and they're like,
well, I need to further my education
to grow in my career.
So you have a lot of adults. Absolutely.
They're taking advantage of the online,
I imagine.
absolutely.
And that's probably, our our largest
component in the, in the online are adults
who are wanting to sharpen their skills
and move up to another level job.
All right.
for if you look at undergraduate
programs,
business is still our largest,
largest program set more than 700 majors.
but biological sciences is
the next largest, and biology is something
we think we will be able to grow.
In fact, in Stem fields in general,
chemistry and biology,
we think there's there are growth
opportunities there.
And we've been investing, and investing
in our campus infrastructure to do that.
We will be opening this fall,
the first new building on campus
in something like 25 years.
It's,
it's a biology, actually, not biology.
It is a science research annex
where we'll be able to do
student faculty research,
in in a flexible way.
The labs are not specifically for
organic chemistry or for this or for that.
We'll be able to flex those spaces.
as we're getting all kinds of,
like, one recent episode,
the LSU health sciences were telling us
about their expansion into the mall.
We're
getting all kinds of insight here on.
Oh, we weren't even supposed to know
about that.
Oh, apparently we jumped the gun on that.
They love. We jumped the gun.
Yeah.
No, we we we have secrets.
We have secrets in the can that
we can't even, we can't even upload yet.
Really?
Because it's already been on the news
because I turned it over.
Yeah I know, so yeah I've seen it.
So be careful what you say, doctor Bob.
No, but that's. But that is exciting.
And I, even some of the older buildings
like in the business building,
I know they've completely remodeled
so much of the inside of that.
Yeah.
We got, we got a very generous gift from,
the Davis family.
And we have opened, what we're calling
the business engagement center.
And on the front of it is a stock ticker.
and our students who have never seen
a stock ticker before, will, will,
just as they're walking by, stop
and look up and see what Intel is up.
You know, whatever.
and so, yeah, we've remodeled there
and we're doing more remodeling,
this summer, we're, we've been doing
some work in Pilots Point apartments.
we've remodeled, the science building
and the, the exterior, the science
building and Technology center.
we've remodeled, a biology lab,
to bring it, bring
bring it into, modern standards.
Well, it's interesting
because a few years ago,
I worked on a story where there was
a lot of
maintenance problems out on your campus.
I'm sure you know what I'm talking about,
even though you're,
you know, only been there about a year.
Yes, 13 months.
But I'm sure you've been working
to address all of that.
We have, it's, you know, it's difficult.
yeah,
we have a lot of deferred maintenance.
Right.
And as to, as do a lot of institutions,
you know,
and it will, it will bite,
come back to bite you some time.
I got a call, on
last weekend that we had a major power
failure, and, we had a
we had three feeds
feeding, feeding, three buildings.
And one of the copper feeds
blew up in a tunnel.
so you. No, no one's injured.
Nothing of that.
So we're going to have to shut down
the entire campus
on Saturday
for all day to replace those power feeds.
So we have some things.
Sure. Well, everybody does.
Well, we do,
but we are trying to address them
in as expeditious a fashion as we can.
The Louisiana legislature was was great
this year.
they passed, a deferred maintenance bill
which gave, gave us money,
for some deferred maintenance items.
So we're addressing some things right now
with, with that, you know, our guys
and our delegation from northwest
Louisiana are always fighting
to get more money up here.
And I thank my lucky stars that they are,
you know, they've been
they've been great.
They really have. Yeah.
What about other medical programs?
I I'd heard there was possibly a nursing.
Is that a pass.
So you heard what you heard, right.
Okay.
we we are we put nursing on our program
forecast I think two years ago.
Got it approved by the Board of Regents.
And this year we're going to go
through the process of developing it.
And and a nursing program.
Nursing program is more complex to develop
than, say,
a math program or volleyball
or volleyball program,
because, you know, you have to go through
the state Board of Nursing
and you accreditation and you want that.
But we're we're starting that right now.
We're trying to identify, consultant
to come in and tell us how to get started,
because this is definitely something
that's needed up here
out of there's so many shortages of nurses
and we building new hospitals,
and we need to fill them up
with, with local talent,
with, in in the past few months,
I've spoken with the CEOs
of two of the three
major medical centers here in Shreveport.
and I've talked with,
the CEO over at Brentwood.
and, and the first thing they tell me
is nurses.
Yeah, nurses, social workers are all sorts
of people who require a pretty high level
of education.
So while we have an LPN program right
now, that's that's
really, really great
and fulfilling needs in the community.
r b a BSN program
and that we would hope to launch
in a few years, would produce immediate
needs, for the community.
How long does it take to
to start a program like that?
From the time you think about it to,
to the time you get it put on the board.
So a program like nursing is going
to take longer than, than most others?
we're guessing
and we're guessing right now because
we haven't spoken to consultants yet.
but we think probably two years,
two years
because, you know, you need
you need space, right?
and we we're identifying the space now,
we have space that we can use,
but we'll need them,
the spaces, rehabbed to be appropriate
for for nursing instruction.
So they use mannequins now extensively.
that instead of live patients.
And which is a great thing.
Yeah.
you know, they'll, they'll,
they'll do, work with mannequins.
You can use Paul. I volunteer him.
Well, it's like an
you need to go with a volleyball coach.
I think you actually,
that's not a bad idea.
I like that.
Keep me in mind
that there's a possibility there.
I don't know, I always think good things
about you, Jeff.
So that's how we might want to
rethink that.
So other things in the area
and man I'm going like way off script here
because I don't even know.
But I know that, with the cyber
innovation center that we need,
I and, and cyber techniques
and all those things.
So one of our other large technologist.
Yeah, one of our other
large programs is computer science.
And they are into cybersecurity
in a big way.
We have one of only a few cyber
security operations centers in the state
is on our campus, where they will
they're monitoring,
all the time for,
you know, for intrusions.
And we are we are now training
as of this past spring.
We're training students to be,
cyber sleuths.
I'm telling you,
that is a growing that's a growing field.
I mean, I know it seems like a niche,
like you say, but my goodness,
I can tell you from practically experience
that is devastating when it hits you.
it absolutely is.
And we're also partnering with Pepsi
and with some other partners
around the state, to produce more,
more cyber, cyber prepared students.
so that's starting right now.
Another industry here
that's trying to trying to resurge
is, is film and television.
And you have, and,
you know, digital creators.
So we do, and
do we have a program
that's specific tuned to that?
Not at this point.
Is that a direction
a little foreshadowing there.
Yeah, it may be.
You know, there's there's opportunity.
Look, I think I think you want
you always want to look at where
the community needs,
needs well-trained employees.
And I'll tell you,
in one of my previous lives,
in central Pennsylvania,
we had a company called Clair Brothers
that, And I had no idea
that this was even necessary.
before a band like the Rolling Stones
goes on tour.
They do, they do prep on off site
without an audience.
With all the pyrotechnics and all
the lights and everything that they do.
They built a huge facility.
And then they came to my institution
and said, you know, we need employees
and we need them trained in ways,
you know, not just to know
about music,
music, business, technology, computers.
And so we put together a program
to meet their needs.
And, you know, and as long as people
want to listen to the Rolling Stones
and every other band, that's.
Well, that's interesting.
It's it's pretty good. Yeah. That is neat.
You've got a wide variety of experience,
don't you?
and by that you can say,
I've been around a while.
You said it's
not about me all the time. me,
slightly off the path.
Tell me about your time at Harvard.
What was that like?
So it was a it was a two week program,
so I wasn't, I got, you know, a student,
but but it was an intensive program, and,
they, they brought in, presidents
and vice presidents from universities
all over the country, to help,
help us understand how
leadership worked and, on a university
level, how the, the finances
worked and, and a number of us
now are presidents or chancellors.
Well, so I'm pretty good class
you had there.
It was a good class.
It's a good group.
That's what they said about doctor Bob.
Buffalo Bob Smith is,
Howdy Doody show, to be exact.
Yes. He's the chancellor
of that class. That's right.
So I walked
through the, I was up in Boston covered.
I was a sports guy forever.
So, I forget what I was covering
some basketball tournament, I think.
I thought I walk through, look,
I just wanted to see Harvard, and
I just made it a point
to walk through the campus one night.
it was pretty impressive.
It's it's it's really impressive
being up there and and, my, my president
when I was a dean, sent me there,
said, I want you to attend this program.
And and she,
she sent me on my way, really?
To become a provost in it.
And now chancellor.
Nice. Well, we're glad you're here.
I'm so thrilled to be here.
This is a great city
and a great institution to be part of.
I can tell
you have real enthusiasm for it.
just a little bit.
You know, I have a lot of enthusiasm.
This is it's
it's it's the the it's a dream job.
Dream opportunity.
And really enjoying
it feels like home now, Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. For as much time
as I spend it.
So I'm on campus a lot. Yeah,
I get so kids.
So kids and grown ups,
need to look at LSU first.
I think if people around here.
Because we need to keep the talent here.
So you're you're do you have programs that
are going to keep people working here?
What are you
most excited about in the near future?
And and down the road.
So one of the one of the initiatives
that we haven't announced yet, but
we're going to announce, another scoop.
It's another scoop.
We're breaking right in the left here.
Well, that's why that's why I'm here.
Right. There you go.
you know, we we want to, you know,
we have pockets here and there where
where we have faculty and students
who work with the community.
I got a letter from one of the Caddo
Parish commissioners just this week,
thanking me for a faculty member
with the students who went out and worked
with, with the the parish community
in in GIS Global Information Systems.
Right. It's a it's it's high tech.
and,
I want to be able to do more of that,
particularly with small businesses
who they can't afford to go
to a, to, to a big consulting firm.
Right. That's beyond their means.
But they can work with us.
And and it's a win win because our,
our students are working on a real
project for a real company.
that that has
far more impact than that
same student working on a on a
a class project for a phony company
building widgets.
Right? Right, right.
And so we're, we're
we're we have a working title
of the center for Northwest Louisiana
Regional impact.
Okay.
And what what way we envision
that is that, it will
it will function basically as a marriage
broker, going out into the you.
Yeah. Loosely speaking, I get it. Yeah.
But work going out in the community
and finding where there are business
and nonprofit and.
And and, governmental needs
and matching them up with,
potential partners on our campus.
We already do that as a nonprofit sector
with our,
in our Institute
for Nonprofit Analysis and Research.
we already do that
in a very big way there,
and we just want to explode this
and do this more.
That's got to be a real point of pride,
though.
When you make that,
when you make that marriage, as you say.
Absolutely.
And we you know, we did this in Georgia.
when I was at Valdosta State,
and I'm kind of covering
and I'm copying the name a little bit.
but, okay.
We we we did more than when I left there
a year ago.
we had done more than 300 projects
with. Wow.
in a couple of years, with businesses
and nonprofits and governmental entities.
That's right.
Were you at Valdosta State?
I was, I'm from Atlanta, so. Oh,
I should have mentioned that earlier.
Everything. Atlanta, Georgia.
Well, Saint Louis, Atlanta,
I get around, perk up.
Yeah. Yeah.
This business.
you're like a coach.
You're hired to be fired.
That's the way it goes.
And that's, you move around a lot.
And in the TV business, not not the
necessarily the chancellor business.
Well, I don't think it's the Chancellor
business, but the vice president business.
That's certainly a lot of it is.
You know,
you know, there for a time and another up,
if you're doing a good job,
another opportunity comes out.
That's what it is.
Well that's how that yeah that's
how I'd like to look at it too.
Another opportunity comes up
after the other one ends abruptly.
we got about a minute left.
So what else do we need to know?
Well, I mean, like I say, I.
I love all the business things
that we talked about.
I would love to gone more
into helping out,
other than how you work
with the businesses so that your kids get,
actual experience
as opposed to theoretical experience.
There's so many neat things going on.
I'm just excited
that you came out and excited that LSU has
something like that here in Shreveport
for for local folks.
That's bringing people here
and building up our, our local students
to hopefully stay around.
And and that's
that is absolutely the mission.
Yeah, right.
we are LSU in Shreveport and that's
actually our name, LSU in Shreveport.
And we represent LSU here.
We're the
we're the local comprehensive university.
And we're here, to benefit
the community and the students
who reside in that community.
And we we really, you know, we really do
want our graduates to stay here one day.
Well,
it sounds like you're doing a great job.
A wide variety of programs out there
and the the student,
the population is growing by leaps
and bounds.
Sounds all sounds good.
It sounds great.
Thanks for being here. Thanks, Bo.
We appreciate it. I'm just comments.
That's right. Nobody remembers
even listening or
watching both to get to know
Shreveport-Bossier.
You can watch this podcast or listen to it
wherever you get your podcast.
Thanks for being here and as always,
this has been good data. Hey!