Louisiana College

History

Louisiana College, known as "LC", was founded on October 3, 1906, in Pineville, across the Red River from the larger Alexandria. The college began in tents with four professor and nineteen students. Since 2006, LC has reported an enrollment growth of 50 percent.

Baptist clergyman and educator Edwin O. Ware, Sr., is considered to have been the principal founder of the institution. He was from 1906 to 1907 the LC financial agent and its first president from 1908 to 1909. LC is the successor to two earlier Louisiana Baptist schools, Mount Lebanon College, sometimes called Mount Lebanon University, and Keatchie Female College. The first, a men's school founded in 1852 by the North Louisiana Baptist Convention, was located in the community of Mount Lebanon in Bienville Parish. The women's college, founded in 1857 by the Grand Cane Association of Baptist Churches, was located in the community of Keatchie in De Soto Parish south of Shreveport. After a history beset by financial difficulties, both schools came under the control of the Louisiana Baptist Convention in 1899. An Education Commission was selected by the state convention to administer the schools with the understanding that both would be succeeded by a more centrally located institution as soon as a suitable campus could be selected. When Louisiana College was opened in 1906, Mount Lebanon College closed, followed by Keatchie a few years later. Since the first class of nineteen students in 1906, more than ten thousand have graduated from the institution.

Until 1921, Louisiana College was administered by the Education Commission. The new charter established a board of trustees. The first administrative head of Louisiana College was W. F. Taylor, whose title was chairman of the faculty. Since its opening under President Edwin Ware, LC has had these seven other presidents:

During part of 1941, Hal Monroe Weathersby (1885–1965) served as acting LC president until the arrival later in the year of Edgar Godbold, the former president of Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. From 1911 to 1914, the Baptist Weathersby was professor of history and Greek. From 1914 until his retirement in 1965, he was the dean of Louisiana College. Like Godbold, Weathersby graduated from Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi, and the University of Chicago. The Weathersby Fine Arts Building, completed in 1961, is named in his honor.

In 1958, the Louisiana Historical Association was reorganized in a statewide gathering on the LC campus. Edwin Adams Davis, head of the history department at LSU and author of a popular Louisiana history textbook, became the first president of the revised association.

Among the benefactors of Louisiana College has been the family of Simon W. Tudor of Pineville, who founded Tudor Construction Company in 1946. Tudor coached basketball, football, and baseball at the college in the 1910s. The men's dormitory Tudor Hall is named for him. Tudor was also chairman of the board of trustees from 1943 to 1953.

In 2012, the Louisiana Baptist Convention granted approval to Louisiana College to seek $12 million in donations from member churches within the state as part of the institution's $50 million capital improvements program. The $12 million will be earmarked for improvements in student housing. Cottingham Hall, named for President Claybrook Cottingam and built in 1941, is in particularly need of full renovation, roof, plumbing, heating, air-conditioning, and ventilation.

In December 2013, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) reaffirmed LC's regional accreditation after two years of warning status. Less than three months later, SACS announced that it would investigate LC after college officials were accused of having submitted documents that contain forged signatures and other inconsistencies in its official reports to the agency. Three months later, SACS placed the university on probation because of an "'integrity issue,' as well as its failure to comply with the accreditor's standards regarding 'external influence,' personnel appointments, administrative staff evaluations, control of finances, and its administration of federal student aid funds."

In November 2014, then interim President Smith disclosed that the college had a $1 million shortfall for the 2014-2015 academic year. The Fall 2014 enrollment of 1,265 was 141 fewer than in the fall of 2013. A decrease of 141 students, according to Smith, represents a loss of $2.1 million in revenues from tuition and fees paid by students, double the overall budgetary shortfall. Major projects under former President Joe Aguillard were suspended, including a school in Tanzania, Africa, a law school in Shreveport to have been named in honor of former Texas Judge Paul Pressler of Houston, and a medical school and film school in Central Louisiana. SACS lifted the accreditation probation in December 2015.

Controversies in the Aguillard administration

LC was shaken by a series of controversies involving the tenure of President Joe Aguillard, who stepped down as president on May 31, 2014 and became president emeritus two months later on August 1. A student strike against Aguillard, called "Prayers for Progress", has been called for March 24, 2014 at LC's Guinn Auditorium. A student spokesman who remains anonymous said, "Our terms are resignation of the president or dismissal by the board." According to a flier, the dissidents vow to "shut down the school by not attending classes until we are heard, and we make steps in the right direction." Aguillard at a forum on March 20 described LC as "an open book regarding our future and our strength and reminding one another it’s not about us, it’s all about Jesus." A reporter for Alexandria Town Talk attended the forum for forty-five minutes before being asked to leave. Aguillard claimed that the newspaper had "printed false information" in recent articles about LC and its evaluation by SACS.

Few students participated in the strike though two trustees and several alumni appeared to show their opposition to President Aguillard. About fifty persons gathered at the auditorium to hold hands, pray, and sing. Organizers blamed the weak turnout on fear of retaliation by the college administration. LC had warned students in a notice that a strike would constitute a possible violation of college policies that could result in severe sanctions, such as suspension, denial of a degree, or expulsion on the first violation of the code. The media was asked to leave the campus at the time of the gathering.

On March 27, 2014, it was reported that the LC trustees had asked Aguillard to resign. The opposition grew after David Hankins, the executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, reportedly dropped his support of Aguillard after word was released that Aguillard had been recorded as having said that Hankins might be the individual promoting Calvinism on the LC campus. Ten LC trustees who had formerly opposed Aguillard released a public letter on March 28 critical of Aguillard's leadership: "It has been about the abuse of power and authoritarian control. We are concerned with truth and transparency and we believe the [Louisiana Baptist] Convention should be concerned about the same. ... we encourage the entire board to be unified in charting a new direction for the college." The ten dissidents, including Tony Perkins, executive director of the Family Research Council, said that the trustees would have called for Aguillard's termination in 2013 had not convention executive director Hankins exerted "undue influence" in defense of Aguillard. Several trustees stressed that Aguillard, not Hankins, is the focus of their concern. It was reported on April 2, 2014, that Aguillard would not resign but has "new evidence" to present to the trustees at the forthcoming meeting.

On April 15, 2014, the trustees removed Aguillard as president and named Argile Smith, the associate dean of Christian ministry of the Caskey School of Divinity, as the interim leader, pending an ongoing search for a permanent successor. Aguillard will assist Smith during this transition and additionally, will become in 2015-2016 a tenured professor in the Graduate Teacher Education program at LC. He began a one-year paid sabbatical on June 1 at his full 2013–2014 presidential base salary of $202,007. If he returns to LC as a tenured professor in 2015–2016, he will receive 50 percent of his current base pay, or $101,003.50. For each subsequent year as an LC senior professor, beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year, he was to have received 30 percent of the current base salary, or $60,602.10.

LC ended its fiscal year on July 31, 2012, with a deficit of $1.3 million deficit; the institution spent $30.5 million during that time but collected only $29.2 million in revenues.

2016 Enrollment upswing

In the fall semester, 2016, LC had a 14.5 percent increase in first-time students. President Rick Brewer, who succeeded the interim Argile Smith, said that the numbers were "trending in the right direction." The college enrolled 255 new freshmen and 61 transfer students; overall enrollment was 1,126, the first in five years to show growth in the number of new students.

Campus

Louisiana College is situated on an 81-acre (330,000 m²) campus in Pineville. The school has twenty-five academic and residential buildings, which include:

Academics

Louisiana College awards the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Bachelor of Social Work, and Bachelor of General Studies degrees and offers more than seventy majors, minors and pre-professional programs. The academic divisions and departments include:

Law school in Shreveport

On September 1, 2010, Louisiana College announced that it is building in downtown Shreveport the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law, named for a former justice of the Texas Court of Appeals from Houston, Paul Pressler, a long-time leader of the theological conservatives in the Southern Baptist Convention and a strongly conservative Republican activist. Pressler was a state representative from Harris County from 1957 to 1959 and a state court judge from 1970 to 1992. J. Michael Johnson is the founding dean of the new institution. The formation of the law school was originally announced in 2007.

LC expects to place the law school in the former federal building named for the late U.S. Representative Joe Waggonner Currently there is no law school within two hundred miles of the planned location. Johnson said that the school will "pursue academic excellence by use of a curriculum that directly acknowledges and embraces our Judeo-Christian heritage and the moral foundations of the American legal system. We want our students to learn and to study the history and philosophy of the law, but all of that will be grounded in what we call 'The Unchanging Foundation.' That is the motto of Louisiana College, and it will be for the law school as well."

Johnson said that the curriculum will be grounded on the ideas of the Declaration of Independence: a Creator God with inalienable rights. The American Founding Fathers, said Johnson, "believed if we moved away from those truths, and the Natural law philosophy, we would be in trouble . . . So their admonition to us was to . . . interpret the Constitution very carefully and according to its original intent because if we fail to do that, we would drift away from the moorings. It is a perilous position, and that is where we find outselves today."

A board of reference has been named to advise regarding the establishment of the law school, including the two area former U.S. Representatives John C. Fleming and Rodney Alexander. Others on the board include Alveda C. King, founder of King for America, Inc.; Tim LaHaye of Tim LaHaye Ministries, Beverly LaHaye of Concerned Women for America, psychologist James C. Dobson, David Barton of the group Wallbuilders, former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Associate Justice Jeffrey P. Victory of the Louisiana Supreme Court, and Richard Land, the former president of the SBC Liberty Commission.

Despite the preliminary work, the law school has yet to open or to admit any students.

Dispute over divinity School

On December 15, 2010, the LC trustees received a $1 million contribution from an anonymous foundation in order to launch a divinity school on the Pineville campus. This is Louisiana College's third announced graduate school since 2008. The school is named the Caskey School of Divinity, after a Southern Baptist minister who "tirelessly worked and evangelized in Louisiana". The founding dean for the school is Dr. Charles Quarles, the since resigned vice president for Integration of Faith and Learning and Research Professor of New Testament and Greek in the Christian Studies Division. Currently Louisiana College is able to grant up to the master's degree under Level 3 status of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The school began classes in Fall 2011. The school planned to initially accept up to one hundred students with free tuition, something unprecedented. Dr. Quarles explained the goals of the Caskey School of Divinity:

Meanwhile, funding of the divinity school came into question. The Cason Foundation, which donated $5 million to LC to fund the divinity school, announced that it will no longer financially support the college because of "actions of President (Joe) Aguillard which we believe to be unethical and potentially illegal." Edgar Cason and his wife, Flora Jean Caskey Cason, who established the foundation in honor of her father, informed LC trustees by letter on April 15 that it would end its ties to LC. A probe into the matter by a law firm in New Orleans claims that Aguillard had improperly diverted some $60,000 in divinity school donations to LC projects in Tanzania, Africa. Five LC board members, however, have defended Aguillard and maintain that he did not act improperly regarding the funds. Cason further questioned why the LC trustees did not permit him to address the board at its March meeting.

A special committee of the trustees voted 4-3 to clear Aguillard of wrongdoing in regard to the diverted funds. One of the dissenting votes was cast by Tony Perkins, a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and the president of the Family Research Council. Perkins subsequently questioned in an email to the Reverend Kris Chenier, chairman of the special panel and the pastor of the Trinity Heights Baptist Church in Shreveport, why the committee had implied that the vote to clear Aguillard had been unanimous, rather than by the one-vote margin. On April 30, the trustees called a special meeting to consider the dispute over the divinity school. Trustees voted for the time being to retain Aguillard as president and laid spiritual hands over him. It was not disclosed how many of the thirty-four trustees were present for the special meeting or the breakdown of the vote, but the trustees declared the matter closed for further consideration.

Notable professors

Student Life

One of the things which set LC apart from other schools is its commitment to promoting a Christian atmosphere. Because LC is a small school it fosters a small community environment where most students are familiar with each other. Overall development amongst the student body is new and growing as the college grows larger and evolves. LC is still in a state of growth and expansion and has been experiencing record setting enrollment within the past few years. In addition to promoting a Christian atmosphere, students at LC have a strong involvement with athletic/intramural events.

Traditions at LC

Louisiana College have several treasured traditions carried out by its students. While LC lacks a large variety of student organizations, traditions are handed down mostly through word of mouth. One of the first traditions learned about at LC is the marriage swing located in front of Cottingham Hall. Legend holds that if a couple sits on the swing at the same time they are destined to be married. This of course leads to apprehension to sit on the swing, although many take their chances. Several have even proposed at the marriage swing. However, unknown to most LC students, the original marriage swing was broken in the spring semester of the 2010–2011 school year and replaced by a replica. Even had this tragedy not occurred, the purported mystical effects of the marriage swing would have been rendered null in the spring of 2015 when the student government paid to have every swing on campus replaced. Another tradition held is the annual rolling of Cottingham Forest during Mom's Weekend. Every year LC holds a Mom's Weekend event when girls and their moms share time together on campus. On the first night of this weekend the male students of LC collect toilet paper and use it to TP the trees immediately in front of Cottingham Hall. In the morning the girls awake to a white wintery wonderland. Another tradition is the fabled Moses statue in front of the Weathersby Fine Arts Building. Legend says that it holds the power of good luck. This power is conferred upon an individual when he/she rubs the top of his head. This phenomenon has been investigated by many, but few are able to offer sufficient explanations for it. Throughout the school year Louisiana College holds several annual events. Homecoming Honey is an event held during homecoming week; male students compete for the hotly contested title of "homecoming honey" by showing off their talents and personalities. The winner is then selected by a panel of judges. Christmas Gala is a treasured tradition at Louisiana College. This is LC's equivalent of prom without a dance. Students bring a date to a formal dinner and enjoy well prepared meals. After the meal students file into an auditorium for a Christmas presentation put on by professors and students. During this presentation the Gala Court is announced and presented to the student body. Cochon De Lait is another event put on by LC's Union Board. Cochon is a campus-wide crawfish boil with all you can eat crawfish. This event is much anticipated and students' families often participate. There are often inflatable games and live music.

Athletics

Louisiana College teams participate as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. The Wildcats are a member of the American Southwest Conference (ASC); and formerly competed in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer and tennis; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, softball and tennis.

Facilities

On October 25, 2008, Louisiana College opened Wildcat Stadium. The new football and soccer field brought the first stadium to campus in 40 years.

Politics

Media

Sports

Education