, an associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, is virtually assured of being named as the next president of Northwestern State University in two days.
A search committee on Tuesday unanimously recommended Genovese for the position, leaving only a formal ratification vote Thursday by the University of Louisiana System board.
Its chair, insurance executive Mark Romero, was recently elevated to the position by Gov. Jeff Landry, who has endorsed Genovese. Frank Serio, president of the university faculty senate and one of the search committee members, made the motion in favor of Genovese as the next president.
Genovese, 74, is a Northwestern State graduate from Opelousas who is a member of the school’s Alumni Hall of Distinction and has been a judge on various courts since 1975. Elected to the seven-member Supreme Court in 2016, he has no experience in higher education or in running a large institution.
But supporters believe his outgoing personality will help reverse an enrollment decline and revive the fortunes of the football team, which went winless last year, in part from the university canceling the six remaining games of the season after one of the players was murdered.
With Genovese poised to leave the court, Landry will have the opportunity to back a more conservative candidate as a replacement in an election that would be in the spring of 2025.
The justice received the search committee’s nod Tuesday after he and the other semifinalist, Jose Cantu, a vice chancellor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, were interviewed at Northwestern State in Natchitoches by students, faculty, staff and the community.
A third semifinalist, Richard Riccardi, a senior official with the Department of Education in Massachusetts, dropped out over the past week. Riccardi didn’t return an email Tuesday asking him why.
Other would-be applicants withdrew earlier as news spread that Genovese had the inside track.
If he gets the job, Genovese will see a huge increase in his income. He will be eligible to retire from the Supreme Court at full pay of almost $200,000 per year and receive the president’s pay, which is currently $280,000 per year and includes a residence on campus. Genovese also for a one-time, no-strings payment for all judges that’s worth $15,000 to justices that was approved by the Legislature in May, even though he won’t serve the entire year.
