Delgado Community College Remembers Its Founder on the Centennial of Its First Classes

 

 

Delgado Community College in New Orleans recently honored the institution's founder, Isaac Delgado, on November 23, 2021. The date was selected for the Founders Day event since it was the 182nd birthday of Isaac Delgado and the 100th anniversary of opening of the college. Members of the Delgado Community College Centennial Committee along with Delgado Institutional Advancement staff members visited the tomb in the ceremonial visit to his tomb in Metairie Cemetery. 

What is now the oldest and largest community college was initially founded in 1921 as the Delgado Central Trades School. The institution was known as Delgado Trades and Technical Institute by 1958. A two year technical degree program was initiated with the first graduates in 1960. 

The name changed to Isaac Delgado College and the Delgado Vocational-Technical Junior College by 1966. Control passed from the City of New Orleans to the Louisiana State Board of Education in 1970. Ten years later the name changed to Delgado Community College.

You can read more about Delgado's history by visiting the institutional history page. 

Dillard University Prepares for Sesquicentennial

Dillard University in New Orleans, LA is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding in 1869.  You can visit the 150th anniversary web page for upcoming events that include a performance by Patti LaBelle at the 150th Founding Anniversary Gala on May 11th and other information.

Dillard was founded as Union Normal School.  In 1889 a medical department opened, including a schools of pharmacy and nursing.  The medical department was named Flint Medical College and it was affiliated with Sarah Goodridge Hospital and Nurse Training School.  The medical college was discontinued in 1911 with the hospital and nursing school continuing under the name of Flint-Goodridge Hospital which later merged in 1920 with Straight College to form Dillard University.  You can find "A Brief History of Dillard University" on the institution's web site.

The Times-Picayune offers "Dillard University: The jewel of Gentilly, in 56 archived photos," brief historical sketches for context.

Information on the campus can be found in brochure published by Dillard, The Architecture of Dillard University 1933 - 1997, that is available through the Internet Archive.

Education Corporation of America Closes over 75 Campuses

The Education Corporation of America headquarter in Birmingham, AL announced today that it will close more than 75 sites that enroll roughly 20,000 students.  The company began the process of notifying students and employees.  The sites include those operating as Brightwood College, Brightwood Career Institute, Ecotech Institute, Golf Academy of America and Virginia College.

You can read more at Inside Higher Ed in an article that was posted earlier today, "Large For-Profit Chain to Close."  WSFA-TV in Montgomery, AL posted a short video with an article, "Virginia College closing in Montgomery, nationwide."

KCRA-TV in Sacramento, CA posted "Brightwood College closing Modesto, Sacramento campuses" on its website.

Thirty-two sites are listed for Brightwood College in eight states on the IPEDS College Navigator site and twenty-seven sites in eleven states are listed for Virginia Colleges.

	Brightwood College Sites	Virginia College Sites
Alabama		4
California	10
Florida		3
Georgia		4
Indiana	2
Louisiana		2
Maryland	3
Mississippi		2
Nevada	1
North Carolina	1	1
Ohio	1
Oklahoma		1
South Carolina		5
Tennessee	1	2
Texas	13	2
Virginia		1
Totals	32	27
# states	8	11

If you are interested in recent trends for closures, mergers,and acquisitions access College Closures since 2009 in the index at the right of any College History Garden page. There are separate tabs for non-profit closures, for-profit closures, and one for mergers and acquisitions. Each tab includes basic information for the institutions, i.e., Carnegie Classification, sector, accrediting agency, and the IPEDS unitid.

Our Lady of the Lake College will change Name

WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge, LA reports that Our Lady of the Lake College will change its name to become Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University.  A posting on the college web site is available with more information.

The institution was founded in 1923 as a nursing school by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady.  The name was changed in 1989 to become Our Lady of the Lake College of Nursing and Allied Health and in 1995 to Our Lady of the Lake College.

Our Lady of Holy Cross College changes name to the University of Holy Cross

New Orleans City Business reports that Our Lady of Holy Cross College is changing its name to the University of Holy Cross.

The institution serves as a ministry of the Marianites of the Holy Cross and was founded in 1916.  It initially operated as Holy Cross Normal School.  The name was changed to The College Department of the Academy of Holy Angels once baccalaureate degrees were offered following 1938.  The name was changed to Our Lady of Holy Cross College in 1960.

Development Planned for Site of former Leland College

An article by Olivia McClure in The Advocate of Baton Rouge, Louisiana focuses on efforts to bring new life to site of the former Leland College in Louisiana that closed in 1960 after 110 years of service to the region training pastors and teachers. The effort underscores the emotional role institutions play in the lives of people they serve and how their sites are often sacred places that people feel compelled to preserve.

An earlier College History Garden post from last year highlighted an effort to open a museum devoted to Leland College and includes more historical information about the institution.  

University of Louisiana at Monroe History Featured

The history of the University of Louisiana at Monroe is featured in a five-minute video segment from KNOE-TV that aired January 29, 2015.  The video features an number of interesting historical photographs and highlights six name changes for the institution following the founding in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College.

Catholic Higher Education in the American South, 1830-1930

Kathryn Mary Wrightson's 2003 Ph.D. dissertation for the University of Georgia, Toward a History of Catholic Higher Education in the American South:  Essays on Sources and Context, is available for those interested in the history of southern colleges.  The author identified fifty-five Catholic institutions that opened during the period between 1830-1930.  Ten of these are still operating and the others tended to close after brief periods due to the isolation and poverty of the areas served.

Wrightson begins with an overview of 19th century religious life in the region.  The third chapter provides brief historical sketches of the Catholic colleges founded in nine states.  The fourth and fifth chapters focus respectively on the structures and "souls" of Catholic colleges.  She concludes by analyzing institutional success and closure in a variety of ways.  Wrightson also includes comments on the state of available sources for information and offers useful suggestions for additional research.

Louisiana Colleges that have Closed, Merged, or Changed Names

This table below includes institutions that have closed, merged, or changed their names.  If you note a need for changing or updating information, please notify ray01brown@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

An index with links to separate pages for other states and countries is available.

There is a College History Garden Facebook group or you can view and follow multiple College History Garden boards on Pinterest or there is a board specifically devoted to Louisiana colleges.

Thanks for your interest and suggestions!

Sacrifice and Survival: Identity, Mission, and Jesuit Higher Education in the American South

Eric Platt's book is available through Amazon and will be a good addition to your reading list if you want to know about Jesuit colleges of the New Orleans Province.  Institutions included for Platt's study include: the College of the Immaculate Conception, New Orleans, Louisiana; Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama; St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, Louisiana; St. Mary’s College, Galveston, Texas; College of the Sacred Heart, Augusta, Georgia; Loyola College, New Orleans, Louisiana; and Loyola University New Orleans.

Supporters Hope for a Museum to Preserve Leland College (LA) History

An article by Steven Ward in the March 24, 2014 issue of The Advocate [Baton Rouge, LA] focuses on Leland College and hopes for a museum to preserve the history of the institution.  The article includes a dozen current and historical images as a slideshow.

Leland was founded by Holbrook Chamberlain in the basement of Tulane Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans in 1870.  It later located to St. Charles Avenue on about ten acres of land.  The institution then moved to Baker, LA after a 1915 hurricane destroyed the campus.

The Southern University and A&M College Archives offers a photo of the college building in New Orleans and a fifteen page .pdf history of the institution.

Soule Business College, New Orleans, LA

The Old New Orleans blog offers a page of images highlighting Soule Business College.  The institution was founded in 1856 and closed in 1983.

The website of the Accounting Historians Journal has an interesting journal article published in 1976 [Vol. 3, No. 3, p. 8] on George Soulé written by Vahé Baladouni of University of New Orleans.

Academic files and records are available through Tulane University's Howard-Tilton Memorial Library Special Collections.

Newcomb College

Several boards devoted to the Newcomb College Institute of Tulane University are available on Pinterest.  The History of Newcomb Women offers a number of images of students attending the the institution.

An earlier post offers links with historical information on the institution, founded in 1886 as H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College.  

Closed Proprietary Schools in Louisiana

The Proprietary Schools Section of Louisiana's Board of Regents maintains academic records for many closed proprietary schools. There is a link mid-way down the page to find a .pdf form that can be used to request records.

Identity and Mission in Jesuit Higher Education

 

R. Eric Platt’s Ph.D. dissertation, Sacrifice and Survival: The Historiographic Role of Identity and Mission in Jesuit Higher Education of the New Orleans Province, submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, August 2011, is available through the LSU Electronic Thesis & Dissertation Collection.

The fascinating work uses historiographically-constructed case studies to address whether institutional identity and mission of colleges and universities affect their ability to survive. Platt further explores whether social environments contributed to the survival of particular institutions of higher education and how the relationship between a college or university and the surrounding social environment contributed to its ability to persist.

Anyone interested in Jesuit colleges of the New Orleans Province will enjoy reading the dissertation. Institutions included for study include: the College of the Immaculate Conception, New Orleans, Louisiana; Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama; St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, Louisiana; St. Mary’s College, Galveston, Texas; College of the Sacred Heart, Augusta, Georgia; Loyola College, New Orleans, Louisiana; and Loyola University New Orleans.

Newcomb College

John Pope's article in the September 1st issue of The Times-Picayune covers the dismissal of a law suit seeking to reopen Newcomb College.

Founded in 1886, a history of H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College is available on Wikipedia. The Future of Newcomb College website is maintained by supporters interested in maintaining the college as a degree-granting institution for women.