A couple years ago, shorty after announcing its intention to open and operate an ABA-certified law school, LC President and top members of his executive staff and board aggressively pursued a comprehensive plan to locate the new school in at at least one and as many as three large, historical and architecturally significant buildings in Downtown Alexandria. No matter how one may feel about the intellectual integrity of Louisiana College as an academic intitutuion, it would been been foolish for Alexandria to simply balk: Dozens and dozens of well-paid professional jobs, hundreds of students, the revitalization of a critical part of our downtown and that the opportunity for residential units and all sorts of other, ancillary small businesses. The City of Alexandria had been willing to assist LC in any way it could, particularly if it involved a series of aggressive ?lease-to-own? agreements that would have allowed LC to take title to tis proposed campus, as long as it continued to meet predetermined ?performance benchmarks.
But well before the typesetters ever had the chance to format a series of dotted lines, LC leadership, apparently emboldened by pledges from those newly-rich from the Haynesvile Shale, felt compelled to explore a radically different and much, much riskier plan: They would move to Shreveport, 110 miles away from their main campus.
Last week, despite the never-ending and self-aggrandizing hoopla produced and promoted by LC, we learned that their application to offer law degrees was rejected by SACS. Make no mistake, no matter how one wants to frame this: It is embarrassing for LC, for Pineviile, for Alexandria, and, of course, for Shreveport.
I have always like and admired Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover, and during the last two days, despite my best efforts to unpack the deal the City of Shreveport struck with Louisiana College, Mayor Glover has adamantly and repeatedly claimed that no such agreement exists. No Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (CEDA), no incentives, nothing, nada, zilch. It?could?exist, he seems to imply; there is, most definitely, justification for it. But it doesn?t.
?
?
And if true, Mayor Glover was preternaturally wise and deserves my apology; LC, however- for better or worse, will continue to scratch their heads.
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