On March 27, the board of supervisors of the Southern University system voted to remove President Ralph Slaughter from office when his contract expires on June 30. Last week, Slaughter filed suit against the board.
In the lawsuit, Slaughter charges the board with polling its own members and counting votes behind the scenes, outside the board's regular meeting. He said this violates Louisiana's open-meetings law.
According to the Baton Rouge Advocate,
The lawsuit focuses on the secret balloting. State law says that each public board “shall be prohibited from utilizing any manner of proxy voting procedure, secret balloting or any other means to circumvent” open-meetings laws.
Slaughter also claims that Gov. Bobby Jindal directed some of the board members to remove him — a charge that board members deny.
The Southern University system, based in Baton Rouge, is Louisiana's public system of historically black colleges.
Read the full article in the Advocate here.
