History :: Continued
Library resources are augmented by the Pioneer Heritage Center, established on campus in 1977 by the Junior League of Shreveport-Bossier. The Museum of Life Sciences, constructed in 1990, holds a collection that includes the most complete array of plants from northwestern Louisiana in the world. Since 2002, the International Lincoln Center’s collection has showcased America’s sixteenth president’s legacy abroad. And the American Studies program—the first privately endowed program on campus—has for nearly a quarter century sponsored the South’s only independent, and least expensive in the nation, Washington Semester.
The entire region benefits daily from the efforts of former faculty member Dr. Dalton Cloud, who spearheaded the mid-1980s campaign to bring National Public Radio to the area through KDAQ, housed on the LSUS campus. Today, the Red River Radio Network has one of the largest coverage areas in the United States.
LSUS has begun efforts to address global awareness, an issue of growing importance. The campus is a member of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) with French study programs in Belgium, France and Quebec. The director’s office of the Association of Third World Studies, the oldest and largest professional organization of academics interested in developing nations, is now housed at LSUS.
The International
Lincoln Center, in cooperation with
the India Studies Program, has assisted
in sending students to conferences in
Latin America and India. The College
of Business recently offered programs
in Germany and Mexico. These international
offerings were pioneered
by former professor Marilyn Gibson
whose trips date back to the 1970s.
A consortium of faculty at LSUS and
the LSU Health Sciences Center at
Shreveport sponsors the nation’s first
Olympic-affiliated USA Weightlifting
Development Center, which is housed
at LSUS.
To measure the distance that LSUS
has traveled since 1967, one needs
only to view the 250-page LSUS
catalog of undergraduate and graduate
programs, or to note that the LSUS
Foundation has more than $11 million
in assets, a reflection of community
support. Finally, the work of its 4,000
students and 200 faculty members is
also reflected in the comparative data
of state colleges published in the annual,
independent Gourman Report that
consistently ranks LSUS among the top
tier of Louisiana colleges and universities.
This accomplishment is evidence
that the little engine that could remains
on track to fulfilling its mission as the
premier university in upstate Louisiana.