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March 25, 2002

Official Statement

I have received the Fisher Review of operations at ULM, and am studying it carefully. It is our intention to take the observations and recommendations contained in this review and consider them with those identified in numerous other working papers concerning ULM that have been developed over the past three years. These have been developed by such external groups as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the National Collegiate Athletics Association, and the Office of the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, as well as internal reviews including the SACS Ten-Year Self Study and ULM's Three-Year Budget Plan. Only by considering all of these resources, and then carefully talking with, and --- more importantly --- listening to, our constituents will we be in a position to appropriately consider and prioritize our actions concerning the recommendations in the Fisher Review.

I commend Dr. Fisher and his fellow team members for their diligence and obvious seriousness of purpose, and thank them for their carefully crafted recommendations designed to improve the situation here at ULM. I also wish to express my appreciation to ULS President Sally Clausen and the ULS Board of Supervisors for commissioning this review so that our new administration would have this interpretation of ULM's present state to add to others already in hand.

The center of all efforts to improve conditions at ULM must be our faculty and staff. At the invitation of the ULM Faculty Senate, I will be addressing our faculty the first week in April. As stated earlier, I will be listening to all of the institution's constituents including students, alumni, business and political leaders, faculty, and staff in order to develop plans to move ULM forward. These actions will be deliberate and thoughtful, and will not happen tomorrow. We must develop long-term solutions for long-term problems.

James E. Cofer, Sr.
ULM President-Elect

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