Accolades & Accomplishments

November 26, 2018

 

Accolades & Accomplishments

Louisiana Christian University Accolades & Accomplishments, 2015 – 2018

ACADEMICS

  • Provided leadership for responding to six SACSCOC citations and removing the College from probationary status.
  • Created a 3+2 pre-engineering degree partnership with Louisiana Tech University. Only private/public college collaborative academic programming initiative in Louisiana.
  • Developed a 3+3 pre-pharmacy doctorate agreement with Union University.
  • Gained SACSCOC approval in the summer of 2017 for the implementation of a BS in Computer Science, Masters in Nursing, Masters in Social Work, and 100% Online Instruction.
  • Advanced the College from one to four Masters degrees.
  • Established an agreement with Rapides Parish School District providing Dual Enrollment opportunities for academically-eligible high school students. Dual Enrollment classes are also available to Christian high schools and homeschoolers in multiple states.
  • Dual Enrollment increased 94%.
  • Initiated a certificate program with emphases in pastoral ministry and missiology for bi-vocational pastors funded by a private donor.
  • Advanced the College’s curricular offerings to include a BA in Leadership, BS in Computer Science, BA in Missions & Ministries, MS in Social Work, MA in Educational Leadership, and 100% Online RN to MSN program.
  • Established the College of Adult and Professional Studies as a 100% Online College for working adults (2017). This program provides a BS in Criminal Justice and BS in Business.
  • Centrally relocated and upgraded Student Success Center that garners about 1,400 student visits per semester.
  • Established the Bridge Program to help remediate incoming students in math, English, and study skills.
  • Member of the Louisiana STEM Advisory Council appointed by the Board of Regents, governing body for Louisiana’s public Colleges and Universities. Only private college president on the council.
  • Identified and Designed four new scholarship initiatives supporting academic achievement and biblical worldview development.
  • Initiated the C.S. Lewis Honors Program for Louisiana Christian University’s high academic achievers. Students in this program apply ideas from Lewis’s works in several select Honors courses. The College’s Honors students will also participate in a study abroad experience during their junior academic year.
  • Created and filled a staff position to focus exclusively on homeschool students.

 

FAITH INTEGRATION

  • Launched the Wayne and Martha Jenkins Center for Evangelism and Missions to augment the Missions & Ministries degree with emphases on evangelism training, mission opportunities, and eventually scholarship opportunities for mission trips and education.
  • Established “Faith Matters,” an annual online and print journal with essays written by faculty relating the College’s differentiating value proposition of a Christian worldview.
  • Inaugurated summer reading project for incoming freshmen and faculty, enhancing our integration of a Christian worldview into the classroom experience of every student. Freshmen read “Why College Matters to God.”
  • Coaches and student-athletes read “Habitudes,” a faith-based book series about the art of self-leadership.
  • Strengthened Louisiana Christian University’s commitment to Faith Integration with the addition of faculty study groups reviewing books such as Conceiving the Christian College(Litfin), Renewing Minds (Dockery), and Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind (Noll).
  • Established annual God in the Workplace Seminarfor the campus and extended community.
  • Established annual Values and Ethics Seminarfor the campus and extended community.
  • Invited noted speakers from across the US for weekly chapel services.

 

ADVANCEMENT

  • Identified and developed more than 200 new donors for the College.
  • Established Board of Visitors resource development initiative that recruited 187 donors, whose combined annual contributions of $250,000 wholly and solely support qualified students with$1,000 tuition assistance per academic year.
  • Directed a $100,000 matching donation campaign among alumni that garnered $200,000+ for campus beautification and improvements.
  • Realized more than $6.5 million in unrestricted donations from individuals and organizations.
  • Procured over $600,000 from the Rapides Foundation to support two academic offerings.
  • Annually raised $10,000 in local corporate sponsorship to sustain the College’s Annual Values & Ethics Conference launched in 2016.
  • Obtained external funding for the resurfacing of tennis courts and installation of artificial turf on baseball and softball fields ($500,000).
  • Garnered $100,000 gift to equip the Tara Terrill Engineering classroom.
  • Launched the $3 million Campaign for Cavanaugh to upgrade science classrooms and laboratories.
  • Biology Department received $69,138 to upgrade a classroom into a new, state of the art physiology applications classroom.
  • Human Behavior department received $54,631 to upgrade two, computer interactive classrooms with new Chromebooks and computer learning stations.
  • A 3-year, $15,000 US Forestry Service grant enabled students to collect and examine insects and assess other living indigenous organisms.
  • The Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Louisiana Independent Higher Education Research Foundation awarded a $3,000 grant to LCU to help the college apply resources toward additional grants through the Board of Regent’s Support Fund which will support additional classroom and curriculum enhancements.  

 

ENROLLMENT

  • Since 2015, enrollment has increased 55%.
  • Fall 2017 to Fall 2018 freshman rate of retention is 65%.
  • Preview Days have quadrupled since 2015, from 42 to more than 175.
  • Transfer student enrollment trends significantly upward.

 

ADMINISTRATIVE

  • President’s Leadership team developed 5-year, Vision 2020 Strategic Plan.
  • Established five additional NCAA Division III sports, bringing the total to 18.
  • Attended SACSCOC Summer Training Institutes (2015 & 2016).
  • Consistently invites successful local leaders to lecture in select classes.
  • Established a strategic partnership with ENVOC for marketing the College via social media and various technology platforms. ENVOC manages the College’s website while connecting the College to news services region wide.
  • Expanded partnership with LifeWay Summer Camps to include M-Fuge high school camps on the campus of the College during the summer.
  • Established a summer leadership development camp for high school youth selected by Pastors and/or Youth Pastors in partnership with the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Student Ministry office.
  • Actively represents the College across Louisiana, speaking to churches; civic groups; and to high schools, public and private.