Harlan Kirgan
Interim LSUE Chancellor Dr. William Crowe is taking the long view of his job that began Dec. 3.
Crowe, 65, came out of retirement to take the chancellor’s job after Kimberly Russell left to become vice president for advancement at Texas Woman’s University.
Russell took the LSUE post in July 2015 coming from Tyler (Texas) Junior College.
In one of those world as a small place moments, Crowe was once president of the two-year Tyler college and Russell worked for him.
Crowe spent 25 years at Tyler including 15 years as president, he left and served 10 years as a senior faculty member and director of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel at the University of Georgia.
In December, the LSU Board of Supervisors approved the appointment of Crowe as interim chancellor until July 31.
There are interims that are just placeholders, he said.
“Then there are interims that, I hope that I can be,” he said.
“I want to act like I’m the permanent chancellor and keep us moving and make decisions like I’m going to be here for awhile and not just be a placeholder,” Crowe said in an interview on Jan. 10.
“We are going to try to keep moving and keep the initiatives that Dr. Russell started going and then try to enhance on those and work on some other things like this partnership with Lafayette General,” he said.
On Jan. 9, a ceremony was held to mark a renovated classroom and laboratory space at Lafayette General Orthopedic Hospital for LSUE’s nursing and surgical technology programs.
The partnership with Lafayette General is aimed at doubling the number of LSUE nursing graduates to a total of 80.
“I think LSUE, from what I can tell, has been on a pretty good roll,” he said. “The enrollment has been growing the last few years. They’ve added programs ...”
The two-year college has done a good job of being part of the community and has reached out to the region, he said.
Enrollment is about 3,300 students and is bucking a national trend that has college enrollment flat or declining, he said.
“We need to do more community-orientated things,” he said.
That includes workforce development, but also serving the community with avocational courses such as swimming lessons, painting and photography classes and summer camps, he said. Crowe also mentions drawing the public to LSUE with speakers, he said.
“We need to get the community on our campus more,” he said.
“It is amazing how many people that we bring out here for meetings say, ‘Oh, I haven’t been out in years’ or ‘This is the first time I’ve been out here.’”
Crowe said he has become involved with Eunice economic development to help forge a long-range plan.
Crowe also sees a need for LSUE to do more with public schools. He plans to meet with area superintendents and principals.
LSUE is poised to graduate its first dual enrollment students in a program that allows high school students to take college-level courses.
There is a need to examine the student population, which he said is about 70 percent female.
“I think we are losing a lot of males from the public schools and I don’t know where they are going,” he said. I think a lot of them are probably just going to work.”
Crowe said, “I think LSUE has the opportunity to really make Eunice and this region an education destination. In addition to serving the students and population of this Tri-Parish region, we would bring in students from around Louisiana and neighboring states.”
The barrier to doing that is the lack of student housing, he said.
There were more than 150 referrals from LSU’s Baton Rouge campus last fall, but no place for the students to live, he said. The housing issue is shared with LSU Alexandria and LSU Shreveport, he said.
Crowe has a bachelor of business administration and doctorate degrees at the University of Texas at Austin and a master of business administration degree at the University of Texas at Tyler.
Crowe is a Tempe, Arizona, native. He had an athletic scholarship at the University of Texas at Austin and played linebacker for the Longhorns.
Crowe and his wife, Debbie, live in Austin and have four children and two grandchildren.
He is commuting from Rayne.