BATON ROUGE -- The search to replace outgoing University of Louisiana System President Sally Clausen should be completed by the end of June.

The president search committee appointed retiring University of Louisiana at Lafayette President Ray Authement as its search consultant.

Clausen is leaving the UL System in June to become the state's commissioner of higher education.

Clausen is replacing Joseph Savoie, who is replacing Authement as Louisiana-Lafayette president.

Authement will retire in June.

The UL System oversees eight universities, including Louisiana-Lafayette and Southeastern Louisiana University. The system is the state's largest with more than 80,000 students enrolled.

UL System board chairwoman Elsie Burkhalter said advertising for the nationwide search will begin as soon as next week as the search committee starts drafting desired job qualifications.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)