Louisiana Christian University (LCU) is a private Baptist university in Pineville, Louisiana, United States. It is affiliated with the Louisiana Baptist Convention (Southern Baptist Convention). Founded in 1906 as Louisiana College, it took its current name in 2021. The university enrolled 936 students in 2024. The athletic teams are known as the Louisiana Christian Wildcats and Lady Wildcats.
History Early history Louisiana Christian University was founded as Louisiana College on October 3, 1906, in Pineville, across the Red River from the larger city of Alexandria. The college began in tents with four professors and nineteen students.
Baptist clergyman and educator Edwin O. Ware, Sr., is considered to have been the principal founder of the institution. From 1906 to 1907, Ware was the college's financial agent and its first president from 1908 to 1909. LCU is the successor to two earlier Louisiana Baptist schools: Mount Lebanon College and Keatchie Female College. After a history beset with financial difficulties, both schools came under the control of the Louisiana Baptist Convention in 1899. The state convention selected an Education Commission to administer the schools, understanding that both would be succeeded by a more centrally located institution as soon as a suitable campus could be chosen. 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 students have graduated.
In 1920, the school completed Alexandria Hall. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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 faculty chair. Since its opening under President Edwin Ware, LC has had nine presidents:
W. C. Friley, 1909–1910, also the first president of Hardin–Simmons University in Abilene, Texas Claybrook Cottingham, 1910-1942 Edgar Godbold, 1942-1951 G. Earl Guinn, 1951-1975 Robert L. Lynn, 1975-1997 Rory Lee, 1997-2005 Joe W. Aguillard, 2005-2014 Argile Smith, 2014-2015 (interim) Rick Brewer, 2015–2024 David Jeffreys, 2024-2025 (interim) Mark Johnson, 2025-present
Since 2000 In 2012, the Louisiana Baptist Convention approved 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 had been intended to improve on-campus housing. Although the campaign has since been abandoned, many residence halls were renovated shortly after the inauguration of Rick Brewer as a part of his "Campus Beautification" campaign. LC ended its fiscal year on July 31, 2012, with a $1.3 million deficit; the institution spent $30.5 million during that time but collected only $29.2 million in revenues.
In 2013, LCU reported an enrollment growth of 50 percent relative to 2006."Capital Campaign Q&A with Dr. Aguillard", Columns: the Magazine for Louisiana College Alumni and Friends (Winter 2013), pp. 10–11
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 after LC 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."
Some students called for a strike against Aguillard on March 24, 2014, at LC's Guinn Auditorium. Three days later, LC trustees asked Aguillard to resign and the following day ten LC trustees released a public letter critical of his leadership.
On April 15, 2014, the trustees removed Aguillard as president and named Argile Smith, the associate dean of the Christian ministry of the Caskey School of Divinity, as the interim leader and began the search for a permanent successor.
The college was granted an exception to Title IX in 2015, which allows it to discriminate against LGBT students for religious reasons.
In 2020, the college was admitted into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
On September 24, 2020, President Rick Brewer announced that the college would be undergoing an organizational restructuring. This restructuring included naming a Provost, a first for the historic institution. Cheryl Clark, previously serving as Vice President of Academic Affairs, was named provost.
At the start of the fall semester in 2021, the college welcomed its largest first-year class ever, with 350 students showing up for the opening day of Wildcat Welcome Weekend: the largest first-year class in the school's 115-year history.
Louisiana College in Pineville formally announced its new name Louisiana Christian University on November 16, 2021, during a meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, according to a Wednesday news release,https://www.klfy.com/louisiana/louisiana-college-becoming-louisiana-christian-university/ Louisiana College Becoming Louisiana Christian University although in November 2022 it was brought to the attention of the Louisiana Baptist Convention that the school had failed to change its name with the state of Louisiana. A motion was brought before the convention to refer to LC by its legal name (Louisiana College) until such a time as the school's legal name had changed, but the motion was denied.
Dispute over divinity school On December 14, 2010, the LC trustees received a $1 million contribution from an anonymous foundation to launch a divinity school on the Pineville campus. The school was named the Caskey School of Divinity after a Southern Baptist minister who "tirelessly worked and evangelized in Louisiana". The founding dean for the school was Charles Quarles. Louisiana College was 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. Quarles explained the goals of the Caskey School of Divinity:
Meanwhile, funding for 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 maintained that he did not act improperly regarding the funds. Cason 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 regarding 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 Kris Chenier, chair 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 vote breakdown, but the trustees declared the matter closed for further consideration."Louisiana College Board votes to retain Aguillard as president", Alexandria Daily Town Talk, May 1, 2013
Campus Louisiana Christian University is on an campus in Pineville. The school has twenty-five academic and residential buildings, which include:
Alexandria Hall, constructed in 1920, houses most of the LC administrative offices and the departments of history, business, human behavior, teacher education, English, and foreign languages. Within Alexandria Hall is the Ruth O'Quinn Center for Liberal Arts and Professional Studies. Designed to upgrade technology resources, the center is named for Ruth Margaret Granger O'Quinn (1925-2021), a 1960 LC alumnus, retired classroom teacher, and a former member of the Rapides Parish School Board. She was the widow of Hansel B. O'Quinn (1916-1967; LC Class of 1954). In 2013, O'Quinn was named an LC "Distinguished Alumnus."Ruth Granger O'Quinn, Columns: The Magazine for Louisiana College Alumni and Friends (Winter 2014), p. 5 Cavanaugh Hall of Science, built in 1969, contains offices, classrooms, and laboratory facilities for the departments of biology, chemistry, mathematics, and nursing. The building was named in 1975 to honor Charles J. Cavanaugh, an LC professor of biology from 1945 to 1977. Weathersby Fine Arts Building, completed in 1961 and completely renovated in 1993, contains the departments of art and music. The building features an exhibition gallery with an adjacent storeroom and a 151-seat recital hall. Guinn Auditorium and Religious Education Center, built in 1973 in an earlier capital improvements program, is home to the religious studies department and contains the 300-seat Frances Bolton Chapel and the 1,800-seat Guinn Auditorium. The auditorium is home to the Gladys Tatum West pipe organ, a 185-rank, five-manual Moeller organ, one of the largest such instruments in the Southern United States. The building is named in honor of past president G. Earl Guinn. Martin Performing Arts Center, built in 1992, houses the media communications, journalism, and theatre departments, a 400-seat black-box theatre, a television studio, and KZLC-LP Radio, 95.5 MHz FM. H. O. West Physical Education Building, which contains a 4,800-seat gymnasium, a heated swimming pool, and the department of health and physical education, is named for the late retailer H.O. West of Minden, the husband of Gladys Tatum West. Norton Library, which contains more than 130,000 volumes, 174,000 government documents, 75,000 items in microfilm, and subscribes to over 500 periodicals. The building was built in 1955. Tudor Hall, a men's residence hall that has a capacity of 168 men. The building was constructed in 1957. The hall is currently undergoing renovation to all of the dormitories, which is expected to be completed by late 2020. English Village, a men's apartment complex open to upper-level students, houses ninety-two students and is noted for its Lincoln Log-style design. Church Hall, a former Methodist church renovated into a men's residence hall, is open to upper-level students and houses the football fieldhouse and the security and information technology offices. Cottingham Hall, a women's residence hall, is named in honor of Claybrook Cottingham, a native of Virginia, who was the LC president from 1910 until 1941, when he became the president of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. Built in 1940, Cottingham Hall houses three hundred women. It is the largest residential building on the campus. College Drive Apartments, the newest building on the Louisiana College campus, was completed in 2001. This apartment building is open to upper-level women and can house forty-five.