Letter explains La. College probation

PINEVILLE (AP) — A letter posted on the website of Louisiana College provides more information on the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ decision in June to place the Pineville school on probation.
The letter was sent to the Louisiana College in July by Belle Wheelan the president of the accrediting association’s Commission on Colleges.
Items cited by Wheelan included evidence that some signatures of employee annual reviews submitted to the agency were forged.
The letter also references a 2013 report from a New Orleans law firm that she said “confirmed” several accusations against former Louisiana College President Joe Aguillard, including improperly diverting money from the college’s Caskey School of Divinity for use in a project in Tanzania.
Aguillard’s presidency ended July 31 and he assumed the honorary title of president emeritus Aug. 1. As part of an agreement with the LC board, he is to be on a paid sabbatical this year before returning as a tenured senior professor of education. He did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment regarding the Wheelan letter.
A group of current and past members of the Louisiana College Board of Trustees who worked for more than 18 months to remove Aguillard as LC president said they were vindicated by the release of the findings by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
“At every turn, the findings in this SACS letter validate what we’ve tried to say and I believe goes so far as to vindicate those of us who’ve attempted to passionately and appropriately address these concerns,” LC Trustee Jay Adkins said in an email.
The letter became public Friday when the college posted it on its website as The Town Talk, which had obtained a copy, was contacting school officials asking for comment.