The Town Talk continues to do the work of Kelly Boggs and the Baptist Press, with a shiny brand new story coming out yesterday, September 14, 2014. The trustee board met last night in an informal session and will meet again tomorrow, September 16. As the Town Talk points out, this will be the first meeting since since SACS placed Louisiana College on probation in July, citing a lack of integrity in the institution, as well as the outside influence of David Hankins and the Louisiana Baptist Inquisition.
Its important to worth noting that the trustees were not permitted to see the letter sent by SACS on July 9 until the Town Talk was preparing a story with the letter in hand, at which point LC, feeling the pressure to beat them to the bunch, posted the letter online a few hours before the newspaper ran the story.
Here are 10 of the problems that the letter from SACS listed with Louisiana College:
1. A “villification of former employees…and dissenting trustees, rather than recognition of the deficiencies of institutional processes to ensure integrity…”
2. An “avoidance of transparency…”
3. Multiple cases of self-contradictory “facts.”
4. Forged documents, which include fabricated minutes from trustee board meetings.
5. “Mischaracterizations of [SACS] actions,” including the allegations that SACS had exonerated Joe Aguillard of any kind of wrong doing.
6. The undo influence of David Hankins, executive director of the LBI, who has demonstrated a general disinterest in and disdain for any rules or bylaws that limit his authority in any respect to Louisiana College or the Louisiana Baptist Inquisition.
7. The punitive and vindictive treatment of whistle-blower, Timothy Johnson.
8. Forged documents, which include staff evaluations.
9. Financial mismanagement, including the use of restricted funds, improper use of college credit cards (by the President, Joe Aguillard), among other things.
10. Deficiency finding in the reporting for Federal Student Aid.
Notice, all of these things, except for #10, were discussed in detail and at length on this blog and on the Pulpit & Pen Program. The letter, itself, is a vindication of all of those – some of whom were talking about it long before P&P – who have spoken about these very concerns.
While we couldn’t get SBC Voices, other Southern Baptist blogs or the Baptist Press to discuss these things, thankfully [and shamefully, because it should never had to come to this] the secular press has seen it fit to do their job and have finally begun to report on this story.
One of the sadder things about this whole mess is that the truth doesn’t seem to matter to some who insist on characterizing all of all these things as a vast-Calvinist conspiracy to take over the college – a narrative that has come directly from the office of LBI Executive Director, David Hankins.
The Town Talk reports the following email exchange between LC trustee and pastor of First Baptist Church of Houma, Steve Folmar and an LC graduate…
” …The problem has been and still is a small number of board members who have an agenda to take over the college and are perfectly happy it appears if they don’t get their way in shutting it down. The social media and members of the board speaking to them has been one of the problems we have with SACS. Everybody wants to know everything. That is just not possible. Those of us with integrity have kept our mouths shut and handled our business as professionals on a board should. “
The real problem at LC, according to Pastor Fomar, are the trustees who “have an agenda to take over the college” and if not, “shut it down.” The problem aren’t those who have:
1. Fired a whistle-blower and forced out another whistle-blower; both contrary to school whistle-blower policy.
2. Paid Aguillard’s drug-using, homosexual assistant 35k in exchange for a confidentially agreement to not talk about Aguillard’s forgeries of staff signatures on fabricated staff reviews.
3. Allowed Joe to spend 60k of restricted and misappropriated funds for a super-mysterious project in Tanzania.
4. Fired three professors as part of a “Calvinists are trying to take over the college” conspiracy fabricated (according to Argile Smith on hidden audio) by David Hankins.
5. Decided to award Joe with a year long vacation and 200k dollar vacation, a status of President Emeritus, and a tenured gig as professor of education and an assembly held in his honor at the beginning of this semester.
Nooooo. The problem is Jay Adkins, Heath Veuleman and the other professors who have been pointing out these problems while others castigated them as trouble-makers and impugned their character. The men of REAL integrity, obviously, are those like Steve Folmar that have covered up sin upon sin, broken rules and regulations (and very possibly, laws) all in the name of denominational cronyism. Yeah. The trustees calling for reform, they’re the real problem.
And please note: if the name “Steve Folmar” rings a bell, it should, because he’s the trustee member that told an/the alumni a few months ago to stop emailing him their concerns about the Louisiana College.
[Contributed by Dustin Germain]
