Office of College Communications
Linda Hutson, Director of College Communications
K. Michele Trice, Associate Public Relations Director
Phone: (318) 487-7194
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March 24, 2006
Aguillard Inaugurated as President of Louisiana College
PINEVILLE -- Yesterday, Louisiana College officially inaugurated its eighth president, Dr. Joe Aguillard. Aguillard was selected as the president in January of 2005 and has been leading the school since then. (His inauguration was originally scheduled for last fall but was postponed due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.)
Aguillard is only the second alumnus of Louisiana College to be named the president of the Christian liberal arts school. The first was the late Dr. G. Earl Guinn.
For the inauguration theme, Aguillard chose “Unchanging Foundations in Changing Times” based upon the scripture passage from Malachi 3:6 which says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change.” Aguillard received three standing ovations during the ceremony.
Dr. James Draper, Jr., president emeritus of LifeWay Christian Resources, delivered the keynote address to the more than 1,000 people in attendance. He spoke of Christ and the Academy or higher education, saying that schools are able to be dedicated to both Christian ideals and academic excellence because “all truth is God’s truth.”
Dr. David Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, was the keynote speaker at the Inaugural Worship Service held on campus Wednesday evening, and he, too, spoke toward the blending of faith and learning.
“Louisiana College has for 100 years pledged to parents, church, and community to be a ‘good mother’ to those ‘children’ entrusted to her care. It is an awesome responsibility,” he said. “Let me suggest that the success of LC centers in its faithfulness to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom’s work.”
“The greatest legacy you can leave when you are done is to remain a confessional institution, and to shape the students’ lives and define the students’ mission on the basis of that confession,” Hankins said.
Aguillard has a long personal and familial history with Louisiana College, and he has spoken in the past of his love for his alma mater. Both of his parents, his wife, and all three of their children attended Louisiana College, and he has been on faculty at the school since 2000.
“Louisiana College stands in a unique position as an academic and spiritual ‘Louisiana Treasure,’” he said on the occasion of his election as president.
In his inaugural address, Aguillard pledged to “fulfill the intention and purposes for which this institution was founded.”
“We will exist until Christ comes,” he said, “…our students as they leave college will be aware that they need not be ashamed, and will take their places as leaders of religious thought and deed wherever they go.”
“Until Christ comes, we are committed to the unchanging foundation of the preeminence of Jesus Christ,” he said.
Aguillard said, “We believe that all truth is from God. Given that premise, we articulate our mission by seeking to interpret and explain our academic disciplines under the Lordship of God, our Creator, and Creator of all Truth.”
“True Christian education is a trilogy consisting of inseparable commitments to Lordship, scholarship, and worship,” he said.
“As Christian educators, we fully commit our minds and hearts into our work,” he continued. “We are committed to professional development and academically rigorous instruction. In all of its programs, Louisiana College is committed to academic excellence in the context of Christian community.”
In speaking of what Louisiana College gives to its students, he said, “The most important thing we can do to prepare our students for a changing world is first and foremost to share that unless you know Jesus Christ as personal Savior, all the degrees in the world, all of the powerful careers ever to be had, and all of the wealth and fame, won’t buy eternal life.”
As he concluded, Aguillard pledged to students “past, present, and future,” “a leadership focused on the preeminence of Jesus as we define and articulate everything about a Christian liberal arts institution.”
Inauguration festivities continue today and tomorrow with a picnic scheduled today for the campus community and the Inaugural PrayerWalk scheduled for Saturday. The PrayerWalk will be held at noon on campus, and Tony Perkins is the honorary chair. Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.
The public is invited to participate in the PrayerWalk.
-LC-
Editor’s Note… The speeches of Dr. Aguillard and Dr. Hankins are available on our website, and Dr. Draper’s speech will also be available there soon. Photo galleries from the Inauguration festivities are also located on our website at: www.lacollege.edu/inauguration.