BATON ROUGE — Some LSU students and community members are worried about a lack of transparency and public input in LSU's search for its next president. 

Last week, Gabriela Juarez and other students were arrested for protesting during the presidential selection meeting. Juarez said being removed from the meeting shows that LSU does not welcome input from the public.

“We should have some kind of right in picking our president,” Juarez said.

LSU freshman Mason Welch said students should not be punished for voicing their concerns at a public meeting. 

"The voices of students, in my opinion, should matter more than what the mayor, what the governor wants in terms of who our next university president is," Welch said.

A consulting firm belonging to Christel Slaughter, the Chief Administrative Officer for Mayor-President Sid Edwards, was hired to oversee the selection of candidates. 

“They don’t want the applicants' applications to be part of public record, so they’re sending them to this private firm who is holding them, vetting them and assessing them before anyone on the committee has any access to them,” said retired LSU professor Robert Mann.  

Mann said this presidential search is the least transparent compared to the past searches.

In April 2013, LSU was sued for its failure to release applications for the presidency and other search documents. Mann said this presidential selection is similar to the lawsuit filed. 

“The main difference is we got the top aide of the Baton Rouge mayor choosing who the finalists for the president’s job will be, and I think that’s a conflict of interest,” Mann said.

Slaughter's firm will deliver the names to the committee, and they will select a president by October 24.

Mann said the quick process in selecting the next president does not allow public input or a chance to know who the candidates are.

“You can't do this work and do it honestly above board, do it the right way, collect all the public input from faculty and students you need in three weeks,” Mann said. 

WBRZ reached out to Slaughter and LSU Board of Supervisors President Scott Ballard. We have not heard back from either.