Former Grambling State University President Rick Gallot will start the new year in the same role for the University of Louisiana System after all.

Weeks of hanging in an uncertain limbo ended Saturday as it was announced Gallot has signed a contract to become president of the ULS. He’ll assume that role on Monday, taking over the nine-school ULS system.

Gallot was voted in by the ULS Board of Supervisors as the new head of the system on Oct. 25 in a move that came minutes after former ULS President Jim Henderson was elected as the new president at Louisiana Tech University.

Henderson’s contract for the presidency at Louisiana Tech was finalized on Dec. 16, but a contract for Gallot did not happen at that point with reports saying that Louisiana Gov.-elect Jeff Landry was concerned that he had yet to speak with Gallot to make sure that Gallot’s vision of moving forward with state higher education aligned with his own.

The Louisiana Illuminator reported that Gallot said in a statement released on Saturday he had spoken with Landry.

“I had a great conversation with Gov.-Elect Landry where we discussed our shared goal of making Louisiana a better state and improving our higher education enterprise,” The Illuminator reported Gallot saying in that statement.

The Illuminator’s report said that Gallot will be paid $475,000 annually with a housing allowance of $54,000, an auto allowance of $24,000 annually or the use of a state vehicle.

Henderson’s final salary as system president was $522,000 annually. Henderson will earn a salary of $450,000 at Louisiana Tech, plus additional $132,000 compensation from the Louisiana Tech University Foundation.

There has been no word yet on announcing an interim president for Grambling State University while the ULS conducts an official search to fill the void Gallot leaves at GSU.

Discussion about naming an interim president GSU was originally on the agenda for the ULS Dec. 7 board meeting but was tabled with no further explanation, a move considered likely to have been made because of the concerns issued by Landry at that point.

The timeline set for an official search for a new president for GSU was announced during the Nov. 17 ULS meeting and is as follows.

• Jan. 12 – Preferred date for applications

• Jan. 17 – Committee receives list of candidates

• Jan. 22 – Committee meets in Baton Rouge to review applicant materials and select semifinalists

• Feb. 5 – On-campus interviews occur this week and finalists selected

• Feb. 21/22 – Finalists presented to full Board of Supervisors and president selected

The next scheduled ULS meeting is set for Jan. 4 with a stated purpose of installing new officers.

This article was originally published in the Lincoln Parish Journal at www.lincolnparishjournal.com.