By Bob Allen
Louisiana College trustees updated the school’s whistleblower policy — adding protection against retaliation for reports of malfeasance made in good faith but specifying that accusations that are malicious and knowingly false will be punished — at a year-end meeting Dec. 15-16.
The policy change was one of several enacted at the close of a tumultuous year that included replacement of a controversial president, trustee resignations and probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
The SACS Commission on Colleges cited the school in Pineville, La., in June for alleged violations of accrediting standards including undue external influence from the Louisiana Baptist Convention, a state affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention that owns Louisiana College and elects its board of trustees.
SACS requires that governing boards of institutions act independently of external individuals or organizations, including religious bodies, to preserve an appropriate learning environment for faith-based higher education.
A trustee document made public on the college website said the relationship between the 108-year-old school and Louisiana Baptists that has been in place since 1921 has been “cooperative and fruitful.” The partnership was updated in 2006, giving voting membership to the executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. The trustee document said the LBC exec, currently David Hankins, “has no other influence over the policies or decisions instituted by the board.”
The trustees adopted a new policy of mandatory training for incoming board of trustee members about the relationship between the two organizations and principles of “autonomy” and “cooperation” that guide Southern Baptist church polity.
Other concerns cited by the accrediting commission included allegations by a former administrator who sued the college claiming he was let go after obeying a trustee policy that encourages the reporting of alleged misconduct by the school’s president.
Trustees reviewed the existing policy that trustees and employees are responsible to “report violations and suspected violations” and added a paragraph enumerating 10 protective measures for the whistleblower.
The trustees added a new whistleblower complaint form to standardize the reporting process, while warning: “Any allegations that prove not to be substantiated and which prove to have been maliciously or knowingly to be false will be viewed as a serious disciplinary offense.”
According to a news release, a presidential search committee has narrowed a list of about 40 resumes but is not yet ready to interview a single candidate to replace former President Joe Aguillard, who stepped down in May to become president emeritus and return to the classroom after a yearlong sabbatical. Argile Smith, associate dean of the college’s Caskey School of Divinity, is filling in as interim president.
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Accrediting agency lists reasons for putting Louisiana College on probation