By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
PINEVILLE, La. (LBM) – Several months after a search began for Louisiana Christian University’s next president, nearly 100 alumni, faculty, and staff of the school along with community leaders gathered for an update at a Town Hall meeting inside the Granberry Conference Room on campus, Aug. 8.
BACKGROUND
The Town Hall was the second of seven scheduled Town Hall meetings around the state that will offer additional insight from those interested in the search for the next president and in the direction of the school moving forward.
Rick Brewer retired in March as the 9th president of the nearly 120-year-old institution. David Jeffreys, who served as executive vice president and chief operating officer since 2022, was then appointed by the board as acting president, and a presidential search committee was formed.
The search committee enlisted the firm of Carter Baldwin Executive Search of Alpharetta, Georgia. The firm has been recognized by Forbes as one of the country’s “Best Recruiting Firms” and, according to the company’s website, it has built and honed an engineered, collaborative, tested and effective search process, and its nonprofit practice helps the world’s leading organizations and institutions build exceptional leadership teams to fulfill their missions.
Carter Baldwin has completed more than 200 executive placements in higher education, K-12 schools, foundations and nonprofit organizations in the last five years, many of which are faith-based or church-related organizations.
Additionally, Frank Ashley is assisting the school in developing a long-term strategy. A graduate of LCU, Ashley most recently served as interim dean at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.
SEARCH UPDATE
Byron McGee, who recently returned to the school as alumni director, opened the Town Hall and shared how he has spent the last few months reconnecting with alumni and donors and reassuring them that they are vital part of the search process as the school moves forward.
“Your input is important,” he said. “We need our alums to get on board with us. Many have stayed on board, but there’s some who have not, and we want them back. And what I’ve heard over the weeks and the few months I’ve been here is encouraging because what I’m hearing (from them) is ‘we want the college to do well, and we will support it, but we’re watching, and we want to see what’s going to happen in these weeks and months leading up to your new president.’”
Jeffreys said that the school remains committed to a biblical worldview in a time when “craziness is going on in our society.” He added that academics and athletics remain strong.
Jeffreys said he is excited that Ashley is assisting the school.
“He has come back and helped us in the process of going through some strategic planning and thinking,” Jeffreys said. “And one of the things he’s challenged us with is to remember our ‘why’ – why we’re here and what we’re doing. I had a good reminder of that this week because we’re finally getting students back on campus. That’s what we’re here for – to train them and to equip them and to transform their lives.”
LCU Board of Trustees Chair Anthony Bunting expressed gratitude for those who attended the Town Hall and for the alumni who have continued to return to the school and serve in a variety of capacities. Moving forward, he said LCU will continue to focus on being a faith-based university and furthering excellence in academics and athletics.
“When you think about being a Christian university and representing Christ, our objective is to spread the Gospel and make disciples,” he said. “So, when you think about that commandment, that’s what we’re about.”
He reiterated that Ashley is a valuable asset as the school looks to the future.
“He’s been in higher education probably for more than 30 years, so he’s a great guy,” he said. “He’s been a great asset. And since he’s an LC graduate, he’s just doing all this at no cost to the university. So, what we plan to do is have a great strategy coming out of these sessions.”
Justin Langford, dean of the School of Ministry and Performing Arts, shared that 345 responses have been submitted for a survey that will offer input on the presidential search process. Of those submissions, 63 percent are alumni, 25 percent are faculty, 8 percent are friends of the school and 4 percent are students. He said the results will help shape the profile of the president.
“The survey is there; if you have not taken it, please do so,” he said. “This is not just something we want to do to check off a box. We talk about this survey and the results every time, or at least so far, we have talked about this every time we’ve met. So, this is important to us. This isn’t just data that’s floating around in cyberspace somewhere. We want to use this to help serve us best in our school.”
Natalie Maxey, assistant professor of engineering, said she felt comforted in discussions with Carter Baldwin, who visited the campus to meet with the search committee and others on campus.
“We all know this is a really important decision,” she said. “We need to get this as right as we possibly can, and so we really want to be faithful in really trying to do a good job in getting a good pool of candidates to choose from, and in making a really good choice, trusting God with the search.”
She said the firm hopes to have a subset of potential candidates by late November and meet with the first candidates in early January, with a recommendation of the next president by February.
“In our research and reading early on, a mantra kind of stuck with us was that we want to have maximized transparency in the process, but privacy for the actual candidates,” she said. “So, we’re not even going to see actual names of candidates until late in the process. They’ll be vetted by the search firm for a long time. They’ll give us characteristics of people that they’re seeing and what some of those qualities are, but until it’s a small number of people that they’re looking at we’re probably not even going to know their names yet. And so that’s going to kind of be the process, and likely some of us will not even see until we get to a final couple of candidates.”
She encouraged others to continue submitting recommendations for president.
“Anyone’s welcome to submit any names they want to,” she said. “We have received a few names already, or recommendations, or emails. We are not even looking at those at the moment, but all of those are going to also go through the search firm process. So even if it’s a local person, you know, somebody you know that gets recommended to us, all of those are going to be vetted through the search firm, so everybody’s going to go through that process there.”
PRAYER OF BLESSING
Louisiana Baptist Executive Director Steve Horn, before leading them in a prayer, told the crowd he is grateful for the friendships he has formed with Jeffreys and others throughout his years of ministry in the state.
“Father, we are thankful for tonight, thankful for just a spirit of wanting to help this institution tonight and God we pray that we would leave here with a sense that this is all really bigger than who we are as individuals,” he prayed. “Help us to leave tonight with a sense that regardless of our own personal opinions and even objectives, what is critical is that in just a few days from now this campus will have brand new students on it, and some who have been here for a few years. And God, that’s what’s really important beyond anything else that we do, the lives that you are orchestrating together on this campus.
“So, because of that, we make it our prayer tonight that you would help us to provide the very best experience for these students whatever that might be, most of all, centered around the mission of helping them to leave this place as disciples of our Lord. Tonight, we ask, oh God, that you would bless the search for a new president and God, just as you have a plan for all of our lives that you will help us to come to understanding of that next plan for this institution.”
Five more Town Hall meetings will take place Aug. 20, 6:30 p.m. at 201 Riggs Street, Edgewood Building, West Monroe; Aug. 27, 6:30 p.m. at 2222 Lakeshore Dr., New Orleans Baptist Association building, New Orleans; Sept. 3, 6:30 p.m. at 416 Marilyn Dr., home of Beth Frith; Lafayette; Sept. 5, 6:30 p.m. at 10560 Airline Hwy., Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge building; and Sept. 10, 6:30 p.m. at a location to be determined, Lake Charles.
The committee continues to receive inputs for the presidential search from a survey developed by LCU’s research department. The survey tool can be accessed at https://lcuniversity.edu/lcu-president-search/. Additionally, the search committee can receive recommendations at: psc@lcuniversity.edu.
