NEW ORLEANS — Outgoing Southern University System President Dennis Shields said Friday that he is stepping down after discovering that the school's board was looking to make a change at the top after nearly four years.

Shields said that over recent weeks the Board of Supervisors had indicated a desire to move on. After a standing ovation from the board, he thanked its members for their support since he arrived in Baton Rouge in 2022.

"I didn’t get here by myself," Shields said. "I got here because people who had no vested interest in my succeeding had seen something more and helped me along the path."

The board had planned to name an interim replacement Friday but an agenda item wasn't prepared with sufficient time. It plans to select someone at its Dec. 19 meeting. Shields will take a six-month sabbatical and then teach at the Southern Law Center after his return, he said.

When setting out its agenda for this week's meeting, the school said without explanation that Shields would step down at the end of the year. The Iowa native, who was the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for 12 years before moving to Baton Rouge, was hired as president and chancellor before the system later split the posts.

"It was indicated to me the board wanted to go in a different direction and I accept that," Shields said in his remarks.

Separately, Southern's board voted to retain Terrance Graves, who was removed as football coach last month, when the Jaguars had a 1-6 record. They are now 1-10 going into the Bayou Classic game Saturday against Grambling.

"As it relates to our separation with Coach Graves, we entered into a negotiated mutual separation agreement providing for an opportunity for him to stay employed at Southern beginning January at the conclusion of his term in December of this year," board member Domoine Rutledge said.

According to the school's agreement, it will pay Graves at least $75,000 a year as an at-will employee in the athletic department. It also has an option to pay $75,000 in a lump sum.