The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s next president will be E. Joseph Savoie, the state’s higher-education commissioner since 1996. Mr. Savoie has been the driving force behind an extensive restructuring of Louisiana’s public universities in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

An alumnus and former vice president for university advancement at Lafayette, Mr. Savoie will succeed Ray P. Authement, who has been the university’s president for 34 years.

Before his unanimous appointment on Thursday, Mr. Savoie spoke to concerns that he is too close to the state’s power structure and that the university should have looked beyond the state for its next president.

He described his national and regional experience, according to a report in The Daily Advertiser of Lafayette, and said: “I’ve been gone from the university 12 years now.”

Mr. Savoie had also expressed doubts about his candidacy. But his “tilting point” included the ease of working in Lafayette, where he lives with his family, rather than continuing his daily commute to Baton Rouge. —Paul Fain