The Southern University Board of Supervisors has four new board members, including former Tulane University President Eamon Kelly.
The other new board members appointed Thursday by Gov. Bobby Jindal are Republican Simsboro Mayor Willie Hendricks, Natchitoches car dealership president Calvin Braxton and Lake Charles pas-tor Samuel Tolbert, who briefly served on the board in 2007 and 2008.
None of them are Southern graduates.
Jindal reappointed New Orleans board member Richard Caiton, who recently became a maximum Jindal campaign contributor.
The Southern Board members who did not get reap-pointed are Walter Guidry of Lake Charles, Lea Polk Montgomery of Baton Rouge, Achilles Williams of Bastrop and Murphy Nash of Shreveport.
The appointments could strengthen Jindal's influence over the Southern Board. Earlier, this year Jindal proposed merging Southern University at New Orleans with the University of New Orleans, but that measure was defeated.
Southern University System President Ronald Mason Jr. said he is looking forward to getting to know the new board members, although he already knows Kelly well.
Kelly first hired Mason at Tulane nearly 30 years ago, jump-starting his career in higher education.
Mason and Caiton though have butted heads some during recent board meetings.
"I thought they (the departing board members) were all fine members of the board," Mason said, "but I got to know Walter Guidry especially well."
Guidry and Tolbert seem to be playing musical chairs on the Southern Board.
Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco in 2007 took Guidry off the Southern Board and she appointed Tolbert, who is a former Lake Charles council-man and the current pastor for Greater St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church.
When Jindal took office in 2008, he would not submit Tolbert for Senate confirmation, which took him off the board. Then Jindal reappointed Guidry.
Now, Jindal is putting Tolbert back on the board in place of Guidry.
Tolbert is not a Southern alumnus, but he is still a life members of the Southern University Alumni Federation.
Hendricks, a former Seattle resident who moved to Louisiana less than 10 years ago, is the senior vice president of Centric Federal Credit Union. But he also has become the mayor of small Simsboro, which is near Ruston.
Braxton is president and CEO of the Braxton Land Company and president of Natchitoches Ford-Lincoln-Mercury.
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