Faith on View

Louisiana College: Aguillard Fired!

Dr. Joe Aguillard in his office standing next to a 10 commantments plaque

It has been a long time since I wrote about Louisiana College. It has been just over a year and a half. I am writing today because there are developments that essentially put an end …

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Painting of Joseph Smith's first vision with Smith on the ground and two identical figures of Jesus and the Father.

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Close up of petrified wood with moss on it at sunset.

C2011 Pamela Reynoso Photo Petrified Forest AZ Sunset-2 — Photo by Pamela Reynoso © 2011

Those who follow this blog, or at least used to, know that there has been, with one exception, no activity over the last year. One major reason, as I explained in my last blog post in January, has been that is has been a very busy time in my life. That has certainly been a part of it. But, I was very busy when I was blogging before. Part of the reason also has been that I hit a bit of a wall in the wilderness experience I have been walking for the last few years.

I remember in early 2010 feeling like I was finally where I wanted to be personally and professionally. I was 37, happily married with five happy kids, I had a house that was pretty darn close to my dream house and I was heading an art department with colleagues I genuinely liked, some truly dynamic students, and a school that was talking about growing. I was on a panel at an international conference for Christian Colleges because I was one of eight professors who had participated in a cross cultural excursion to Indonesia and we were introducing a large traveling show that came out of that experience. To make it even better,

Rondall, Pamela, and the kids in a fall 2014 portrait

A little while back I had a fan of Faith on View message me on Facebook asking me to once again post regularly on Faith on View. Okay, truth be told it really was more of an internet friend teasing me for my failures. For those who follow this blog, they noticed that in September posts stopped fairly abruptly. What happened was that I had the wonderful opportunity to become a Senior Lecturer at California College of the Arts which is one of the top Art Schools in the nation. But, I had previously committed to teaching two classes at William Jessup University, an evangelical school in the Sacramento area, and a class at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where I am pursuing my PhD. This meant that in addition to the Theological Aesthetics course I was auditing from the esteemed Frank Birch Brown, I was also now teaching five classes at three different institutions. All that to say I was really busy and I let my writing on Faith on View slip. The good news is that this semester my teaching is reduced and I am only teaching one course at GTU and one at CCA. This should translate into more regular writing from me. I have a lot of ideas so I am looking forward to having more time to get them on “paper.”

Rondall, Pamela, and the kids in a fall 2014 portrait taken by Nicole DiGiorgio of Sweetness and Light Photography — Rondall, Pamela, and the kids in a fall 2014. Portrait taken by Nicole DiGiorgio of Sweetness and Light Photography

Every year, when 9/11 arrives yet again, a whirl of emotions fill me and I begin to mentally prepare myself for the countless images of flaming towers and chaos. On September 11, 2001 I was watching the TV dumbfounded as events unfolded just a few miles away. When the last tower dropped, I was suddenly plunged into a world of silence as the TV reception and cell service failed simultaneously. I began the long wait to hear from my husband who was attending class in Brooklyn that morning. The semester had just begun and I wasn’t sure when his classes began… and he frequented the area surrounding the World Trade Center (WTC).

Seeing the photos of the towers burning also brings back the incredible stench them burning for a month and the heavily armored military presence in the city that appeared over night, on every bridge, in every subway station and seemingly on every street corner.

BUT

There always in a “but”, isn’t there?

I could have chosen a path of fear or anger, but instead, I choose hope. (It’s often a daily choice.) The profound effect on 9/11 on my life is very hard for me to articulate, almost impossible, but these photos help to show my perspective.

World Trade Center, NYC — World Trade Center, 1998

Tommy French sitting in front of the Louisiana College administration building

Tommy French looks like an unassuming elderly preacher. He was the founding pastor for Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1959 and served as the Senior Pastor there for 50 years. For the last several years, he has served as pastor emeritus. He has been respected within the Louisiana Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention, previously serving as both Vice-President and President of the Convention. He also spent a decade on the Board of Trustees for New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary as well as two years as the Chairman of that board. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of Louisiana College.

With a resume like that one would expect behavior fitting the consummate man of God. Unfortunately, that is not what Tommy French has so far demonstrated in his role as Chairman of the Louisiana College Board of Trustees. French first gained attention for his behavior as Chairman of the Board when in March he threatened Trustee Jay Adkins for speaking publicly about ethical issues at LC and accused him of possessing materials which he had no right to have. French later became even more notorious when he lied to the Board of Trustees about SACS requiring an expanded confidentiality agreement. In July, French was one of two persons who received a copy of the damning letter from SACS. He ,shortly thereafter, promised trustee members who wanted to see the letter that he would “send information when it becomes available.” Despite that promise French held onto the letter for a while two months until forced to release it because the Town Talk had obtained a copy. This failure frustrated trustees, including Jay Adkins, who in an e-mail to the board pointed out French’s failures at keeping his word.

Log for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

Thursday Louisiana College posted the letter that they received from Belle Weelan president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC or more commonly referred to as SACS). This is a letter that LC officials (the president and the chairman of the board) received two months ago but refused to release even to the Board of Trustees until this week. Presumably, the reason that LC released the letter now is because the TownTalk newspaper obtained a copy of it and contacted LC to ask for comments.

The letter is a scathing indictment against both the Louisiana College Administration and the Board of Trustees. This is particularly interesting because many of us are watching LC to see if having Joe Aguillard out of the presidential office will actually indicate a change in the way the college operates. Some of us are skeptical. Trustee, Jay Adkins, has even said publicly that nothing has changed. That certainly seems to be the case. Last week Joe Aguillard was praised in the first chapel of the academics year when the school held a ceremony to bestow the President Emeritus status on Aguillard. During that chapel Aguillard was even compared to Jesus in his commitment to “[telling] it like it is.” Interestingly, the college for two months had this letter from SACS which tells a very different story. Yet, the college still chose to honor him. The TownTalk rightly pointed out that the letter from SACS vindicates the minority group of the board who have for almost two years been raising concerns about the college. It also vindicates former Vice-Presidents Timothy Johnson and Chuck Quarles for the concerns they raised about Aguillard’s leadership when they filed whistleblower complains in December 2012.