“Unchanging Foundations in Changing Times”
The Inauguration of President Joe Aguillard.
Lifted from the pages of the program:
President Joe Aguillard
In January of 2005, Dr. Joe Aguillard was named Louisiana College’s eighth president by the Board of Trustees. He assumed the duties of the office immediately and has been working tirelessly for his alma mater ever since.
It sure seems like it took a long time to finally make this official. Perhaps this has something to do with that lawsuit.
He is only the second alumnus of Louisiana College to serve as the school’s president, following in the footsteps of the late Dr. G. Earl Guinn.
I don’t know who Dr. Guinn was, but I’m not sure Dr. Aguillard is following in anyone’s footsteps. He seems to be blazing his own trail.
Dr. Aguillard has been on faculty at Louisiana College since 2000, but his personal history with the College is a long and storied one. Both of Aguillard’s parents attended Louisiana College and met at the liberal arts school. He and his wife met at Louisiana College, and all three of their daughters have attended their parent’s alma mater.
That TOTALLY makes him qualified!
“My ties are very deep and very entwined with Louisiana College,” Dr. Aguillard says. “The position is a sacred calling for me, and I will make decisions and guard my actions knowing that my work here is far beyond a career move.”
A sacred calling??? So God called him up and told him to become the Dean of LC? So God= The LC Board of Trustees?
Holding an Ed.D from Nova Southeastern University, Dr. Aguillard and also holds two McNeese State University master’s degrees and his bachelor’s degree from Louisiana College. Prior to joining the Louisiana College faculty, he was the Superintendent of Schools of Beauregard Parish.
Let’s do a little fact finding. What, you ask, is an Ed.D from Nova Southeastern University? From the program’s website:
The Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership program has been created to assist adult learners to meet both current and future leadership challenges facing their organizations. This program has been designed to address the needs of practitioners by linking theory to the best practices of leadership. The program is based on the conviction that contemporary leaders must learn to lead the change process so that services are effectively and efficiently delivered to an increasingly diverse population. Essentially, leaders must learn to lead change in the context of a turbulent economy and a rapidly developing technology for the 21st century.
The primary audience of this program will be individuals with background in human services, human resources, staff developers/trainers, military personnel, middle managers.
And the requirements of the degree are as follows:
Students must fulfill the following graduation requirements.
1. Attend Doctoral Student Orientation at NSU
2. Attend Summer Conference within the first year of admission into the program (required for all students entering as of fall 2004).
3. Attend and pass all core courses (30 credits)
4. Attend and pass all specialization courses (18 credits) – Please see the important announcement regarding the sunset of the DOL program.
5. Attend and pass all research courses (9 credits – Please see the important announcement regarding the phasing out of ARO courses.)
6. Successfully complete:
-The applied dissertation seminar 1: concept paper (2 credits)
-The applied dissertation seminar 2: proposal (4 credits)
-The applied dissertation seminar 3: report (3 credits)
7. Be current in all tuition, fees, and miscellaneous charges (including books).
Total requirements: 66 credit hours (all requirements must be completed within five years from the date of the beginning of the term of entry).
Let me get this straight: They’re calling this guy a doctor because he attended a FIVE YEAR LONG program for “adult” professionals (also known as “distance” or “continued” learning) who need leadership training because of the fast-paced world of “technology.” Oh, and the guy got to learn what it is like to live in a world with a “diverse population.”
How is he the most qualified person in the world? Did they even attempt to search for a dean? Or did they just promote another good ol’ boy?
“Louisiana College stands in a unique position as an academic and spiritual ‘Louisiana Treasure,'” Dr. Aguillard says. “With the full support of our alumni and Southern Baptist churches, our beloved LC will continue to grow in value as a gleaming treasure chest of opportunity for our children.”
Louisiana treasure? Treasure chest? Where’s the rainbow?
Dr. Aguillard has always a strong rapport with the student body. In 2004, he was named Professor of the Year, an award voted on by the student body at large.
Look: Proof that students LOVE him.
The Teacher Education Department, under Dr. Aguillard’s leadership, received consistently high marks from the Louisiana Board of Regents, among others, and led the nation in percentage growth. He led a group of Louisiana College students in researching and writing the curriculum for the Heart of Spain art exhibit at the Alexandria Museum of Art in 2003. The curriculum was used by teachers and students throughout the world.
This is just ridiculous. His claim to fame is assisting students in writing a curriculum for the Heart of Spain exhibit? Are you kidding me?
His Teacher Education Department faculty adopted a conceptual framework relating to their Christian worldview that follows the Scripture, Ecclesiastes 4:12, which reads, “A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” The Department uses this conceptual framework to describe a dynamic educator. This framework encompasses Christian service, mastery of subject matter, and the attributes of a practioner teacher.
Of the “three strands,” two include being a Christian.
“The greatest strength that Louisiana College has is that we are unashamed to declare that all power in heaven and earth lies with Jesus Christ,” Dr. Aguillard says. “As we are able to plug into that power, there is nothing too hard to do or accomplish.”
Everyone knows that in order to be admitted into LC, students MUST declare their allegiance to Jesus Christ. It’s just like every other “liberal arts” college in the world.
“Education in the truest sense is none other than the development of the image of God that is planted in every human being,” Dr. Aguillard says.
I think Socrates said the same thing. Or was it Plato? No, no, no, it was David Koresh.
Dr. Aguillard says he envisions a Louisiana College with higher enrollment, financial stability, academic excellence, and Biblical values. “This will be the greatest liberal arts college the state has ever seen,” he says.
I literally laughed out loud the first time I read this.
Dr. Aguillard and his wife, Judy, have three daughters, Jill Reid, Julie, and Jodi. Jill’s husband, Will Reid, is also an LC alumnus.
Rock.
CenLamar 
Lamar, I had high hopes for you when you first got involved. You seemed objective and openminded. You neither know Dr Aguillard nor do you have any appreciation of the school or its structure . The fact that you do not even know who Dr Guinn was is probably the best example of your uninformed yet bold opinions. I teach at LC. I graduated from LC I am not even a Baptist. However, the slanderous ramblings of the uninformed such as yourself is both damaging and uninformed. Obviously as you stated earlier you are influenced by students that you “know”. I remember being 21 or whatever you are and thinking that I knew everything. We all do when we are young and uninformed or inexperienced. It is easy to hear something and parrot it as fact without really knowing the truth or having an objective perspective from more than one person or one group who may have their own agenda. It is so easy to take a “rumor” or “whispering ” about a person or their shortcomings, habits or vices and spread it and make it truth. I doubt that you would want such uninformed judgments made upon you or ANY member of your family . Would you ? I would imagine you would feel that to be cruel and unfair.
In their own words:
http://www.baptistmessage.com/articledetail.php?articleID=edc6b18350f81e4e0c0988e35d6ff839
To the LC professor: What are you talking about? Slanderous ramblings? SLANDEROUS? With all due respect, sir or madam, do you know the meaning of the word slander or are you simply hyperbolizing in order to make your point? That is a serious accusation. Where, I ask, did I committ the crime of slander? Professor, you should know that there is a difference between satire and slander.
I do not know the man personally, and I am not attempting to make a value judgment of his character. I am simply reading what has been supplied to me, and these are the facts:
1. Dr. Aguillard’s “doctorate” degree is in organizational leadership and diversity training.
2. His belief that this position is a “sacred calling” precludes any argument against him. It puts those who do not agree with him in a morally indefensible situation.
3. THESE ARE HIS WORDS! I didn’t make this up.
4. His C.V. (or at least the summary of it) does very little to address how and why he is the most qualified person to steward a liberal arts college.
5. His three-fold concept of the academy and his magical treasure chest musings are antithetical to the concept of the academy. The academy is founded on the concept of the OPEN EXCHANGE OF IDEAS. If a college and its dean purport to change the basic underpinnings of the academy, they are announcing a paradigm shift in their pedagogy.
I am sorry that you lost confidence in me, but I don’t require the confidence of an apologetic LC professor who stands idly by while his school is overtaken by religious fundamentalists.
If I can’t use a man’s words and his experience as a guidepost for WHO he is, then what can I use?
By the way, go ahead and say what you want to about my family and its vices. I promise you: You wouldn’t be the first person to judge my family on a public forum.
(By the way, that’s another thing that gets me. I NEVER said anything negative about his family. He is in a leadership position and deserves the full scrutiny of the public. Also, I OBVIOUSLY care deeply about the future of LC. Why else would I waste my energy and expose myself to attack from those entrenched in his administration?)
By the way, thanks for the link. It was illuminating. And incredibly frightening.
Lamar, the fact that you are absolutely right and the facts all support your position will do little to dissuade this entirely intolerant magpie. He spouts his Christian virtue while exposing his unyielding intolerance and making thinly veiled threats against you and your family. If Jesus heard this guy he would shit!
Amen
Oh….now that was a nice comment.
Haha. Yeah, I think you’re right. I don’t care if I lost a reader. I have little patience for people who make personal attacks without addressing anything substantive. This “professor” person accused me of being “uninformed,” yet he/she offered no evidence to support this claim… except that I am young and I don’t personally know the people I am talking about. Well, I don’t know President Bush personally. By this logic, I’m unqualified to make any critcism of his administration or its policies.
How is this person a PROFESSOR?