The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Fall 2010
Restoring native
coastal plants
[page 30]
B
udget cuts. By now you are probably tired of hearing about them! So is everyone
at Nicholls and in all state agencies. Therefore I will not spend much time on
this topic, except to touch on it briefly at the end of this message. Instead I will
Fall 2010
From the President
The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Features
focus on many of the good activities and developments that continue to occur at
Nicholls.
First of all, this spring our students exhibited their courage in approving a self-assessed fee to
operate a new recreation center. In an overwhelming vote of confidence in the future of this university, the students voted by 79% to 21% in favor of the fee proposal. Nicholls will now proceed
with construction of the recreation center, with groundbreaking scheduled for late fall. Work has
already begun on three intramural fields. With the addition of this facility, Nicholls will offer a full
range of campus life to both our residential and our commuter students.
Secondly, as we prepare to send Voilà! to press, this year’s capital outlay budget, which is working
its way through the Louisiana Legislature, contains funding for planning and design of the John
Folse Culinary Institute classroom building. Construction could start as early as Fall 2012. Should
20 Bridging the learning gap by Renee Piper
Students overcome dyslexia and other learning disorders with
help from professionals at an on-campus research, counseling,
and service center.
24 Not your grandfather’s Nicholls by Tony Cook
New facilities, new technologies, and the ultra-fast pace of social
change in 21st century America are altering life and the learning
experience on campus.
30 Wanted: tough, adaptable plants by Graham Harvey
The goal of restoring Louisiana’s damaged natural habitats requires cultivating plants uniquely suited for this part of the world.
20
Departments
2Phenomena words from the editor
3Running the Numbers
that occur, I am very confident that the institute will be poised to go from a small but significant
educator of quality chefs to a major player in the nation’s culinary arts. The new classroom build-
4-5 Quick Study research and teaching
6-13Around Campus and Beyond
ing will allow us to expand our enrollment very quickly.
can we do this with all of the budget cuts we have sustained. The answer is as important as it is
simple: All of these projects have been funded with self-generated funds or through the capital
14-19 Faces of Nicholls
Voilà! is full of great stories about what is taking place on campus. A newly renovated Beauregard Hall opened this summer. Nicholls alumni who took classes in the old Beauregard Hall will
be amazed at the transformation of this building into a state-of-the-art science facility. Peltier
Auditorium is being completely redone, with new seats, new carpets, a new sound system, and
more. Our campus is looking better than it has in many, many years. To see it is to wonder how
outlay budget. None have been funded through the operating budget. We have invested our dollars
wisely in building a campus that will attract well-qualified students and a strong faculty. Our future
and the future of the region we serve depend on both! We must continue to move Nicholls forward
in a strong, positive manner.
35
6
7
8
10
11
12
13
13
A home away from home
14
16
17
18
Francis T. Nicholls memorabilia
Dining hall receives national acclaim
Beauregard Hall gets complete overhaul
Faculty debate on national politics
Steinway pianos strike happy note
Chauvin sculptures star in movie
Culinary student wins big prize
Reading a common book
Four decades of service
Stompin’ on the swamp
Please don’t call on me!
Inspired by nature
Gallery
36-38 Colonel Pride
Dr. Stephen Hulbert
24
36 Nicholls is coach’s second family
38 Thriving on life’s challenges
30
40-41Expressions
a guest essay
Up the road from Bayou Drive
42-48 Honor Roll
Generous donors of 2009-10
Front Cover
The 2010 oil spill threatens coastal habitats.
Photographs by Misty McElroy
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 1
Running the Numbers
Phenomena
A
Words from the editor
ll summer long, the people of south
Louisiana have been dealing with the
consequences of oil pouring from an
open well deep in the Gulf of Mexico
into the waters that feed and protect people, animals, and
plants in our state’s coastal parishes. As this issue of Voilà!
goes to press in July, the mood of many people is quite
somber—even fearful. The emotions are similar to those we felt five years ago, in August 2005, as floodwaters pushed into the city of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina
ruined thousands of homes, schools, churches, and businesses and killed people, animals, and plants in numbers almost too frightening to remember. A fragile culture was
almost washed away by those waters. Now, the waters of the Gulf, fouled by oil and
toxic chemicals, threaten to wash away yet another fragile culture: the one that thrives
on the bayous and bays of the region Nicholls State University calls home.
In June, our campus photojournalist, Misty McElroy, flew on a U.S. Coast Guard
airplane with journalists from around the world to observe and photograph the situation at the oil leak site, and to see what was happening to the fishing areas and the
coastal wetlands. The images she brought back are stunning and raw: varying hues
of blue on the open waters of the Gulf, the variations caused by oil on and below the
surface; ropes of oil boom outlining a threatened marsh, its wildlife and vegetation
protected by barriers that look perilously thin. We placed one of Misty’s images on
our front cover because we recognize that the disaster out in the Gulf is a personal
crisis for every one of us who loves Nicholls and the Bayou Region. We trust that, a
year from now when again we go to press, the present crisis will be over and there will
not be another to take its place.
A home away from home
Nicholls State University
Thibodaux, Louisiana
President
Dr. Stephen Hulbert
Vice President,
Institutional Advancement
Dr. David Boudreaux
Editor
Tony Cook
Graphic Designers
Bruno Ruggiero
Jerad David
Photographer
Misty McElroy
Writers
Graham Harvey
Renee Piper
Brandon Rizzuto
The views and opinions expressed in Voilà!
are those of the authors and individuals
involved. They do not necessarily represent
the perspectives of the magazine’s staff or
policies of Nicholls State University.
Voilà! is published once each year, with
funding by the Nicholls State University
Foundation and the Nicholls State University
Alumni Federation.
Brief excerpts of articles in Voilà! may be
reprinted without a request for permission
if Nicholls State University is acknowledged
in print as the source. Contact the Editor for
permission to reprint entire articles.
Nicholls State University is a member of the
University of Louisiana System.
Send comments and address corrections to:
Voilà! Editor
Office of University Relations
P.O. Box 2033
Thibodaux, LA 70310
Tony Cook
Editor, Voilà!
by Tony Cook
Folks who remember when Bayou Region residents thought of Nicholls as
“Our Harvard on the Bayou” should be pleased to know that students from around the
state and nation—and the world—are charting their futures here in 2010.
Why is this a good thing? Because people from other places bring different
perspectives along with them. Education depends upon the studied consideration of
unfamiliar ideas and information.
That being the case, it is interesting to think how many ways the Bayou Region’s
lifestyle and culture have been adopted and spread around by students who come here
from elsewhere. These days, not just local people know how to make crawfish etouffee or
dance the Cajun waltz. They’re doing it all around the world.
Come to Nicholls to earn a college degree, and you leave knowing what the local
population knows about living. This is true whether you come here from a shotgun house
in the Irish Channel of New Orleans or from a cattle ranch in KwaZulu-Natal, South
Africa. Nicholls, the university on the bayou, becomes your home away from home.
6,495
The total number of students
enrolled at Nicholls at the beginning of the Spring 2010
semester. As always, most of these students came from
either Lafourche or Terrebonne parishes.
3,459
St. Charles 257, St. James 254, Orleans 120, and
Ascension 105. Fewer than 100 Nicholls students last
spring resided in each of the other Louisiana parishes.
Parishes sending only 1 student to Nicholls: Caldwell,
Catahoula, Franklin, Jefferson Davis, Lasalle, and Union.
The number of students
studying at Nicholls last term from the two local parishes:
1,705 from Lafourche and 1,754 from Terrebonne.
So, 3 regions of Louisiana produced the most Nicholls
students in Spring 2010: the Bayou Region, the River
Parishes Region, and New Orleans with its adjoining
suburbs. This means that most Nicholls students are from
communities within 65 miles of Thibodaux.
3,036
217
2,696
123
The number of Nicholls students
The number of Nicholls students in the
enrolled in Spring 2010 not residing in either Lafourche
spring semester from the United States who did not
or Terrebonne parishes. Where did these 3,036 Nicholls
call Louisiana home. The top five states are Texas 74,
students come from? From the other parishes in Louisiana, Mississippi 30, California 21, Florida 20, and Alabama 15.
mostly.
The number of students who
made their way here in January from places near and
far in Louisiana. In rank order, they came from these
parishes: St. Mary 651, Jefferson 309, Assumption 269,
The number of students attracted to
Nicholls from outside the United States. More than 10
students came from each these countries: France 20,
United Kingdom 16, and Nepal 15.
phone: 985.448.4143
e-mail: voila@nicholls.edu
web: www.nicholls.edu/voila
Source: Office of Assessment and Institutional Research, Nicholls State University: Spring 2010 Enrollment Statistics (Feb. 9, 2010): pp. 17-23.
2
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Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 3
Quick Study
Surf’s up!
Student athletes
compete for sales
N
Trashy fish rehabilitated
G
raduate students in the Biological Sciences
Department are busy in all the environments
between the Nicholls campus and the Gulf of
Mexico, studying everything within the Lafourche
ecosystem. For example, one doesn’t have to go very far
to find garfish around Thibodaux. One of the oldest
fishes in Louisiana—lurking in these waters since the
time of dinosaurs—gar were once considered a “trash”
fish. But with the research of Dr. Allyse Ferrara and
her students, garfish are gaining respect. Their work has
increased knowledge of garfish reproduction, diets, growth,
genetics, and even aquaculture techniques to raise gar for
commercial purposes. (One student’s master’s thesis is titled
“Growth, Survival, and Cannibalism Rates of Alligator
Gar.”) Scientists from Mississippi, Oregon, Great Britain,
and Mexico have collaborated on the research.
Turning sugar cane into fuel
L
ate in 2009, Nicholls was awarded a $1,903,000
contract from the U.S. Department of Energy to
research clean energy. The contract supports work at
Nicholls for three years as part of the Clean Power
and Energy Research Consortium (CPERC) in Louisiana.
The research at Nicholls focuses primarily on generating
ethanol from sugar cane waste. Sugar cane is a major crop
in southeast Louisiana, and every year millions of tons
of residues are produced, which are renewable resources.
This research seeks to find an economical way to produce
ethanol from these residues, providing a renewable energy
source and an alternative to open air burning of agricultural
residues. Dr. Ramaraj Boopathy, distinguished service
professor of biological sciences, is the principal investigator
of the CPERC grant at Nicholls.
4
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Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
icholls students from the professional selling program
in the College of Business Administration competed
in the National Collegiate Sales Competition
(NCSC) in March at Kennesaw State University in
Georgia. The NCSC is the largest sales competition in
the world and attracts students from all over the United
States as well as from other nations. Nicholls MBA students
Theunette Antill from Krugersdorp, South Africa, and
Jordan Ogletree from Houston, Texas, won the second
round of the graduate student competition in team selling
and negotiation. Antill played golf for Nicholls as an
undergraduate and Ogletree played football for the Colonels.
Overall, the graduate student team from Nicholls placed
third in the nation. Nicholls also sent two undergraduate
competitors, Ryan Donegan of Thibodaux, the Student
Government Association president, and Rachel Spreen
of Houston, a Lady Colonel on the volleyball team. Dr.
Chuck Viosca, assistant dean, advised the sales team.
D
r. Graziela Miot da Silva, assistant professor of geology at Nicholls, is working
on a three-year study financed by the
National Natural Science Foundation of
China to create a surf zone-beach dunes interactions model for China. On a sandy beach,
the surf zone is the area where the waves
break as they come near the shore. It’s the
area where swimmers and surfers frolic. The
breaking waves are involved in the constant
movement of sediment along the shore. Over
time, this movement can cause sand dunes to
form on the beach. The beach dunes protect
the land from storm waves and unusually high
water levels. In China, as elsewhere around
the world, coastal erosion has serious effects
and is an area of intense interest and activity. Hence the grant to Dr. da Silva, who is an
expert in coastal geomorphology.
Who’s bringing
the popcorn?
T
hat old audiovisual standby—the classroom movie
presentation—has evolved in a
project in the Nicholls Physical
Sciences Department. The project
involves several chemistry faculty and
students and is directed by Dr. Glenn Lo,
associate professor of chemistry. Chemistry
faculty and students produced a library of
short video tutorials on how to solve specific problems in
freshman-level chemistry courses. Students can access these
videos online as questions arise. Each video covers a bitesized piece of material at a moderate pace—the emphasis
is on areas that commonly cause problems for Nicholls
students. (Q. What does the “p” in “pH” stand for? A. No
one knows for sure.) It’s like being able to ask the smart kid
in the class for help, except this smart kid is always available
and is incredibly patient.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 5
Around Campus and Beyond
Francis T. Nicholls
memorabilia
F
rancis T. Nicholls (1834-1912) was twice governor of
Louisiana and chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.
A West Point graduate who served in the U.S. Army, he
opposed secession when the Civil War broke out. When
the conflict threatened Louisiana, the six-foot-tall lawyer from
Donaldsonville joined the Confederate Army and rose to the
rank of brigadier general. Battlefield wounds in Virginia cost
him his left arm and foot. After the war he worked to stabilize
and reform Louisiana politics.
In Thibodaux today, a visitor seeking to learn more
about Gov. Nicholls can visit the tomb where he is interred
with his wife, Caroline, in the St. John’s Episcopal Church
cemetery. His home, called Ridgefield, burned early in the
20th century but has been restored and stands behind the
Nicholls Shopping Center on LA Highway 1. And there is
Nicholls State University, named in his honor and, along
with the Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge, one of
just a few places in the state where artifacts related to his life are
preserved.
Clifton Theriot, head of archives and special collections at
Ellender Memorial Library on campus, noted that Nicholls owns
a number of items associated with Gov. Nicholls. Many of them
belong to the Evans J. Casso Collection, donated by the author of
Francis T. Nicholls: A Biographical Tribute, published by the Nicholls
Foundation in 1987.
Helping small
businesses
T
From top to bottom:
The program from the May 16, 1892, inauguration ball.
A document Nicholls signed in 1890 appointing a member to the Louisiana Institution for Instruction of the Blind board of trustees.
Senators discuss issues
“Nicholls Grand Triumphal March”—music composed for the governor’s inauguration.
An 1862 daguerreotype of Nicholls, encased in a velvet-lined frame box, shows the Civil War general’s empty sleeve. The image is
flipped, however. His left arm and foot were lost when Nicholls was wounded in separate battles in Virginia in 1862 and 1863.
Ridgefield, the Thibodaux home of Nicholls and his wife, Caroline Guion Nicholls (1840-1930), and their children. Two of their seven
children were born here, and both the governor and his wife died at Ridgefield.
FA L L 2 010
I
n 2010, for the fourth consecutive year, Nicholls was named to
the President’s Higher Education
Community Service Honor Roll.
Launched in 2006, the list recognizes
colleges and universities nationwide
that support innovative community service and service-learning
programs. It is the highest federal
recognition a university can receive
for service-related commitment.
he College of Business Administration has secured $499,500
from the U.S. Small Business Administration to establish a Small Business
Development Center at Nicholls
and cover three years of operating
expenses. The center will assist Bayou
Region businesses in such areas as
training, management, accounting,
marketing, and financial planning.
Dr. Shawn Mauldin, dean of the College of Business Administration, said
he would like to see the new center
become “a permanent service offered
at Nicholls.”
A personal journal that shows water damage from the fire that damaged the Nicholls-Guion family home in the 1940s.
6
Service recognized
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
A
mong the expert panelists at the
2009 National Women’s Leadership Summit, held in New Orleans
and sponsored by the Nicholls-based
Louisiana Center for Women and
Government, were U.S. Senators
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Lisa
Murkowski of Alaska. The senators
were part of a discussion of environmental and energy policy issues.
Murkowski is the senior Republican
member of the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee and
also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Landrieu serves
on the two committees as well, in
addition to chairing the Senate Small
Business Committee.
Information jobs
promoted
I
n 2009, IBM announced a collaboration with Nicholls that
introduced new curricula in the
university’s information systems
program, part of the College of
Business Administration. The courses
are designed to help students develop
skills required for jobs in emerging
fields—including electronic medical
records, intelligent transportation
systems, and smart energy grids. Also
in 2009, Nicholls became a member
of the Microsoft Dynamics Academic
Alliance.
Lab simulates reality
T
he American Association of
Drilling Engineers Computer
Simulation and Distance Education
Lab at Nicholls opened in Fall 2009.
Funded by an $80,000 grant from
AADE—as well as a grant from the
Louisiana Board of Regents—the lab
enhances hands-on experience for
petroleum services students through
computer lab simulation exercises
embedded into existing drilling,
production, and safety technology
courses. The lab is housed in the
Department of Applied Sciences,
part of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Nurses know Nicholls
A
substantial portion of licensed
registered nurses working in the
Bayou Region received their degrees
from Nicholls, according to the
Louisiana State Board of Nursing’s
2009 roster of registered nurses and
the Nicholls Department of Nursing’s graduate database. Licensed
registered nurses who earned an
associate’s or bachelor’s degree from
Nicholls make up the majority in four
local parishes: Lafourche, 84 percent;
Terrebonne, 84 percent; St. Mary, 59
percent; and Assumption, 58 percent.
Speaking for BP
W
hen the BP oil company
needed to communicate with
the Vietnamese population on the
Louisiana coast during the 2010 oil
spill crisis, they turned to Nicholls for
help—and received it. Linh Nguyen,
a senior multinational business major,
agreed to serve as a translator. Fluent
in both Vietnamese and English,
Nguyen was recognized as the university’s top international female scholar
in 2008.
Architectural gem
T
he renovation of the Vernon F.
Galliano Dining Hall at Nicholls was
featured in American School & University
magazine’s 2009 Architectural Portfolio.
Spearheaded by Blitch Knevel Architects
of New Orleans, the 2007 renovation
completely updated the obsolete 1964 design.
The Architectural Portfolio is an annual
competition spotlighting architectural projects
that represent America’s most effective learning
environments.
FA L L 2 010 7
Around Campus and Beyond
New life for a campus landmark
Beauregard Hall
Cindy Lamberty, instructor of
chemistry, and Dr. Earl Melancon
Jr., distinguished service professor of biological sciences, spent
the summer moving into brandnew laboratories equipped with
the latest technologies.
Faculty members are excited about the upgrades, especially the modern design and updated equipment.
Dr. Earl Melancon Jr., distinguished service professor of
biological sciences and 35-year Nicholls veteran, says he
is most appreciative that the architects sought input from
faculty as they designed the new interior. The collaboration led to such features as individual research labs for each
faculty member, a walk-in cooler to keep samples fresh, and
two “natural history rooms”—one for animal specimens
and one for plants.
“
It’s like going from
Once rundown and outdated, now a sparkling high-tech marvel
by Graham Harvey
Beauregard Hall facts
• Size: 52,000 square feet, shaped like an “H”
• Location: corner of Madewood Dr. and Glenwood Dr.
• Namesake: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (1818-1893)
• Opened in Fall 1961, the fourth building on campus
• Cost to build in 1960-61: $950,000
• Renovated, refurbished, and reopened in Fall 2010
• Cost of 2009-10 improvement project: $12.5 million
• Cost of new roof after Hurricane Gustav: $94,669
• Value to Nicholls students, 1961 until ?: incalculable
8
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B
eauregard Hall’s post-renovation exterior, with its landscaped courtyards,
new paint, and 20-foot steel exhaust
vents on the roof, would probably be
enough to impress any passers-by.
Renovators didn’t stop there,
though.
At 49 years old, the 52,000-squarefoot facility was the fourth academic
building constructed on the Nicholls
campus. A complete overhaul was clearly due—and that’s
what it received. The result is a new, state-of-the-art science facility wherein Nicholls students will resume classes
in Fall 2010.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
”
a Model T to a Cadillac.
“The new classrooms are interactive-media-ready, with
projectors. Plus, every lab now has data ports with Internet capabilities directly hardwired into the building. It’s
outstanding.”
Additional features include at-bench ventilation as well as
several extra ventilator hoods, for experiments with noxious
chemicals like sulfide.
“There were certain qualitative analysis experiments we
simply couldn’t do before, but now, with this equipment, we
can do them,” she said.
Other upgrades include fluorometers—used to measure
the parameters of fluorescence—as well as expanded walking space, storage space, and increased energy efficiency.
“I’m especially happy about the space,” Lamberty says.
“The storage is incredibly efficient.”
– Dr. Earl Melancon Jr.
Moreover, all physical sciences will now be consolidated
in the new Beauregard Hall, whereas they used to be
divided between Beauregard and Peltier. Student labs,
faculty labs, faculty offices, and a majority of classrooms
will all be under the same roof (although biology will still be
headquartered in Gouaux Hall).
“Scientists of different disciplines will now be able to
interact in the same building,” Melancon says. “This is the
way science is supposed to be—interdisciplinary. This is
now the norm.”
Compared to the old Beauregard, Melancon says, “it’s
like going from a Model T to a Cadillac.”
Cindy Lamberty, instructor of chemistry and 16-year
Nicholls veteran, concurs.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
This multimedia-equipped classroom in the new Beauregard Hall is one of several,
each differing in size for different purposes.
FA L L 2 010 9
Around Campus and Beyond
“
Big government is a fact
of life. Student loans,
good highways—people
”
The Department of Music hosted the second annual Monster Piano Concert in Talbot
Hall Auditorium. Eighteen pianists, including faculty, students, alumni, and guests, performed on six Steinway pianos.
like them.
Left
or
Right?
—Dr. Joseph R. Thysell Jr.
professor of political science, speaking “for
the left” April 20, 2010, at an on-campus
forum on national politics.
“
Americans love socialism
but hate the word. We
keep offering more and
”
more benefits.
—Dr. Paul J. Wilson
associate professor of history,
speaking “for the right” at the
same event.
10
FA L L 2 010
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Nicholls among elite with All-Steinway status
by Graham Harvey
A
nyone who might doubt the timehonored reputation of Steinway and
Sons need only visit the company’s
Web site, where a scanned copy of the
following letter is posted:
“I have decided to keep your grand piano.
For some reason unknown to me it gives better
results than any so far tried. Please send bill with
lowest price. Yours, Thomas A. Edison.”
For more than 150 years, the name Steinway
and Sons has been synonymous with excellent
piano craftsmanship—and Nicholls is on track
to becoming Louisiana’s first public institution
to boast “All-Steinway” status. The current
roster is relatively small, with only about 110
All-Steinway schools globally. They include The
Julliard School, Yale School of Music, China
Conservatory of Music, and Royal Welsh College
of Music and Drama. Nicholls plans to join the
list as soon as possible.
“Steinways are the best-built pianos in the
world,” Dr. Carol Britt, associate professor and
head of the Department of Music, said. “Each
piano requires up to one year to hand-craft,
and the result is a perfect instrument with a
wonderful sound. As an All-Steinway institution,
we will continue to attract top-notch students
from across the globe, because they will know
what type of institution they are attending—a
school that loves the arts. This is a symbol for
what Nicholls stands for, and we believe piano
players will flock to us.”
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
She recalled touring the Steinway factory
personally in New York City, where many
employees remain for their entire professional
lives—sometimes even for successive generations.
“It’s definitely a labor of love,” she said.
The Department of Music at Nicholls
already has four Steinways for practice and
performance, totaling approximately $250,000
in value. Future acquisitions will include upright
pianos for practice.
Dr. Luciana Soares, assistant professor
of music, said the university’s All-Steinway
commitment raises the profile of the institution.
“It demonstrates the university’s dedication to
excellence and makes us more competitive with
other institutions in the area and beyond,” she
said. “We can now say that our students will have
the best instruments to inspire and challenge them
as they reach their fullest potential. Steinways are
considered to be the best pianos available.”
Funding for the new pianos began with a 2007
grant from the Lorio Foundation totaling nearly
$200,000—and continues with fundraising events
such as the annual Monster Piano Concert.
Dr. David Boudreaux, vice president of
institutional advancement and professor of
English, said the Lorio Foundation’s generosity
strengthens the university’s recruitment and
retention efforts.
“Students who want to practice and perform on
the finest instruments in the world now have the
opportunity to do so at Nicholls.”
FA L L 2 010 11
Around Campus and Beyond
Almost famous
Divinely
enigmatic
T
he field of 11 competitors in the 2010
S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef finals
A
in Napa Valley, California, included
s part of the 2010 Jubilee!
arts festival at Nicholls,
south Louisiana filmmaker
Zach Godshall presented his
film God’s Architects here in
April. The film focuses on several divinely
inspired builders, including the mysterious Kenny Hill, who created the amazing
Nicholls Sculpture Garden in Chauvin.
Godshall’s film was screened at the sculpture garden’s art studio after the annual
Blessing of the Fleet on April 18.
Kenny Hill spent nearly a decade
building what some know as “the story
of salvation,” an environment of more
than a hundred concrete angels, statues,
and various other structures, including a
45-foot lighthouse. In the late 1990s, Hill
abandoned the property beside Bayou
Petit Caillou and disappeared, not to be
heard from again. While the property is
owned and maintained by Nicholls, Hill’s
former neighbor Julius Neil serves as the
local expert regarding the sculptures and
their enigmatic symbols. Neil is featured
in Godshall’s film, which was produced
in collaboration with Tulane architecture
instructor Emilie Taylor.
12
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John Folse Culinary Institute student
Johnathan Lynch, who won a $3,000 prize
when at-home viewers voted him their personal favorite while watching the event on a live
Internet feed. Lynch competed for the national
title in California after winning the south central
regional competition—the third year in a row
that a Nicholls student has won first prize in the
regional event. The John Folse Culinary Institute
became part of University College in 2009.
A common book
A
ll first-time, first-year students at Nicholls will
read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer in this fall’s
sections of UNIV 101—the University College
course designed to equip Nicholls students with
the tools for success.
Dr. Robert Allen Alexander, associate professor of
languages and literature and University College’s director
of retention and student engagement, surveyed Nicholls
faculty and staff in the spring to select the book from a list
of prospective Common Books. Nominated by students,
faculty, and staff in Fall 2009, 78 books were narrowed
down to five choices by a committee.
“I encourage everyone to read Into the Wild,” said Dr.
Alexander, shown here doing just that. He noted that faculty, staff, and upper-level students will participate in class
discussions of the book this fall.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
The final five
Bayou Farewell: The Rich
Life and Tragic Death of
Louisiana’s Cajun Coast by Mike Tidwell
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
The Omnivore’s Dilemma:
A Natural History of Four
Meals by Michael Pollan
The Soloist: A Lost Dream,
an Unlikely Friendship, and
the Redemptive Power of
Music
by Steve Lopez
Song for My Fathers: A
New Orleans Story in Black
and White by Tom Sancton
FA L L 2 010 13
Faces of Nicholls
Four decades of service
C
by Renee Piper
ommitment. It’s a consistent theme in the life of Dr.
Carroll J. Falcon, the genial Nicholls administrator with
a 43-year career in higher education, over 31 years of
service to Nicholls, and a marriage that just passed the
42-year mark.
Falcon recently made a new commitment—to retire.
Second in command to the university president for the
past six years, he relinquished his role as provost and vice
president for academic affairs on June 30, 2010.
It was August 1967 when the 26-year-old Falcon first arrived on the
Nicholls campus to teach animal science. He moved to Thibodaux
from Kentucky, where he had recently earned his doctorate and met his
soon-to-be wife, Deanna.
His path to Nicholls and marriage was not by design,
but by destiny. “That’s how it is in my life,” he said. “A
lot of things that have happened to me, have happened
almost by accident. Going to school at Kentucky was an
accident. I really wanted to go to Iowa State or Texas
A&M. But, had I not gone to Kentucky, I never would
have met Deanna.”
Growing up in Rayne, a small town in south central
Louisiana—the self-proclaimed “Frog Capital of the
World”—Falcon wanted to be a farmer. But, as a college
student at the University of Southwestern Louisiana
(now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) he discovered a desire to teach, thanks in part to an unsuspecting
professor.
“I enjoyed observing my college professors, but there
was one in particular who wasn’t very good. I kept thinking to myself: I could do better than that.” Years later, he
ran into that not-so-good teacher, and Falcon told him
that he inspired him to become a college professor. “I
didn’t tell him it was because he was so bad. That’s true,
but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings,” Falcon said.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in animal science,
Falcon applied to Texas A&M and Iowa State for graduate assistantship positions. He received a call from Iowa
State, but they could not offer him an assistantship because his application arrived late. They were impressed
with Falcon and suggested he apply for an assistantship
at the University of Kentucky.
“Come to find out, the people at Iowa State knew the
faculty advisor at Kentucky,” Falcon said. “They assured
me that the advisor was well respected, so I decided to
check it out.”
Sure enough, Falcon was offered the assistantship.
Because he had no other offers at the time, he accepted.
“Wouldn’t you know it, a few days later I received the
call I had been hoping for, from Texas A&M,” he said.
“They offered me a position, but I had to turn them
down. It was really tough. I had my heart set on going to
Texas A&M, but I had already made a commitment.”
While at Kentucky, Falcon not only earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in animal science, he met his
future wife.
He also refined his Cajun cooking skills.
“When I moved to Kentucky, and the people there
learned that I was from south Louisiana, they said:
You’re Cajun, you must know how to cook. So, I started
cooking the few things I knew how to prepare.”
Falcon’s cooking brought him and his wife together.
“When I first met Deanna, I was cooking a gumbo.
She was supposed to go on a date that night with someone else, but she broke it off so she could have gumbo
with me instead.” That was in June 1967.
By then, Falcon had completed his studies and was
Dr. Falcon was senior vice president and
chief academic officer of the University
of Louisiana System, 1993–2004.
searching for a full-time faculty position. While attending a conference in New Orleans, he was introduced by
a friend to Dr. Donald Ayo, head of the Department of
Agriculture at Nicholls. That meeting led to a job offer.
Two months later, he packed his bags and moved to
Thibodaux. As he settled into his job teaching animal
science, he maintained a long-distance relationship
with Deanna. “I proposed to her over the Thanksgiving
break, and we were married five months later, on April 6,
1968,” Falcon said.
From 1967 to 1978, Falcon was promoted to department head, then to dean of the College of Life Sciences
and Technology, a position he held for 15 years. In 1993,
he left Nicholls to accept a prestigious position with the
University of Louisiana System: senior vice president
and chief academic officer. For three of his 11 years with
the system office in Baton Rouge, Falcon was the UL
system’s acting president and board secretary. In July
2004, Falcon returned to Nicholls as provost and vice
president for academic affairs, the position he held until
his retirement.
Now, Falcon is committed to enjoying retirement
to the fullest. “I’m traveling a lot these days,” he said.
“Deanna and I like to explore the little towns throughout
Louisiana. There’s so much to see and discover in this
state.” Falcon also is learning more about his genealogy.
“I’ve always loved researching my family’s history. I plan
to take some time while I’m exploring Louisiana to meet
and visit my relatives.”
Also on Falcon’s retirement agenda: woodworking
projects. “I really enjoy woodworking,” he said. “In fact,
I made our front porch swing out of found cypress.” He
said he intends to do lots of woodworking in retirement
and perhaps take up woodcarving.
No doubt, Falcon will make the most of his retirement—which is sure to include time in the kitchen
cooking Cajun food and enjoying his family. The Falcons
have two children, David and Anna, and three granddaughters, ages two, four, and six.
Although more than four decades have passed since
they shared their first bowl of gumbo, Falcon still enjoys
cooking for his wife.
Dr. Carroll Falcon relaxes on the front porch at his home in Thibodaux. His 31-year career at Nicholls ended when he
retired on June 30.
14
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Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 15
Faces of Nicholls
Please don’t call on me!
Stompin’ on
the swamp
Alumna helps future teachers overcome anxiety about math
S
by Graham Harvey
“
he lived in Hamburg, Germany, for the first 19 years of her life and then
spent several years in New Jersey, Maine, and Canada, where she raised
her family. Some might call that an unlikely beginning for a woman whose
driving goal, in 2010, is to preserve authentic Cajun culture in southeast
Louisiana.
Nevertheless, Nicholls reference librarian Anke Tonn is doing just that.
She is one of the driving forces behind the university’s Louisiana Swamp
Stomp Festival, now entering its third year. The spring festival spotlights local
and regional bands; features a variety of south Louisiana foods; offers several
presentations on the history, culture, and economic development of the
region; and showcases artisans demonstrating their crafts and selling handmade items. All festival
activities are distinctly Cajun, which is Tonn’s primary object.
“We are trying to help preserve the music and the language of this region,” she said. “We especially want the younger people of the area to come back to their roots.”
It is a natural fit for the jovial Tonn, whose earliest professional goal was to become a music
librarian and historian. She said she grew up loving music festivals, so it stood to reason that she
should one day help found one.
“And I love Cajun culture, especially the music and dancing,” she said. “The rhythms, the
colors, the instrumentations, the smiling people. Cajuns welcome you in. People just don’t get
depressed here. That’s what I love.”
Tonn was first introduced to Cajun culture in 1994, when she was offered a job at Tulane University in New Orleans. Some of her colleagues took her out dancing at Tipitina’s nightclub after
work one day, and she immediately discovered her new passion.
Two years later Nicholls hired her as a cataloging librarian, and it was in this capacity that she
planted the seeds of the Swamp Stomp festival by creating the Cajun Zydeco Exhibit in Ellender
Memorial Library. Her goal was to reach younger generations whose ties to their heritage were
becoming less and less binding.
”
Cajuns welcome you in…. That’s what I love.
— Anke Tonn
For 12 years the exhibit was an annual event. Then, university administrators approached
her about expanding the exhibit into a full-blown festival—so she and Brenda Haskins, director
of auxiliary services at Nicholls and co-chair of the festival committee, took the reins and made
Swamp Stomp a reality.
Tonn said the festival’s success results from the hard work of many people, including Haskins;
Dr. Eugene Dial, vice president for student affairs and enrollment services; Dr. Quenton Fontenot,
associate professor of biological sciences and coordinator of the marine and environmental biology
graduate program; and Dr. Gary Lafleur, associate professor of biological sciences.
16
FA L L 2 010
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
ou’ve hunkered down behind the student in front
of you, hoping that the teacher will forget you
are there, sitting in the same desk as every day in
math class. It’s come down to that weirdly paralyzing moment that you’ve dreaded. Will she call
you to come up front and work out a problem?
If she does, humiliation will surely follow.
“Math anxiety” is such a common experience
for students that it really needs no explanation, although the
preceding scenario is typical. Thankfully, educators are making progress toward easing or eliminating the psychological
pressure that prevents capable students from being successful
at math.
Dr. Rebecca Robichaux is an expert on the causes and
possible remedies for math anxiety, especially among females. As an assistant professor of mathematics education at
Mississippi State University, she teaches students planning to
become elementary-school math teachers.
Although Robichaux offers her students many strategies
for coping with math anxiety, her teaching philosophy is
uncompromising. To her math teachers-in-training she says,
“You’re going to have to teach a child, so you have to show
me you can do it first.”
The 1991 Nicholls graduate comes from a family of
teachers. Born in Thibodaux, she is a daughter of two
Nicholls alumni who are now retired from careers at Nicholls: Dr. Paulette Rodrigue, former professor of education
and student teaching director, and James Rodrigue, former
Nicholls band director.
Robichaux’s bachelor’s degree in secondary mathematics was augmented by a master’s in math education from
LSU. She taught high school math in Baton Rouge, where
“
Mississippi State University
Adventurous librarian organizes
annual bayou party
Anke Tonn dances with a partner at Swamp Stomp 2010.
Y
by Tony Cook
For four and a half years teaching elementary math methods, Robichaux researched math anxiety and sought to relieve
it in her students, all of them master’s-level and planning
teaching careers. “Their anxiety went beyond fear,” she said.
“Some of them would become nauseated. I had to help them
get past the anxiety so they could become effective teachers.”
I had to help them get past the anxiety so they could
become effective teachers.
—Dr. Rebecca Robichaux
she became intrigued by the anxiety displayed by her female
students toward the subject—specifically, basic algebra and
geometry.
She saw how math anxiety held back bright students. In
math class, “the girls were not as confident as the boys,” she
recalled. “Their anxiety was, ‘I don’t get this and I’m afraid
to let anyone know it.’ They were never taught to conceptualize a math problem. Memorizing is no problem—modeling
is difficult.”
After LSU, Robichaux taught at a U.S. Defense Department school in the Bahamas. Nice gig, but her goal was a
doctorate, which she earned in 2000 at Auburn University
after receiving a master’s in applied math the year before.
That equipped her for a faculty position at Southeastern
Louisiana University.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
”
One method she used was solo testing. The student took
her test with no one present except Robichaux, so there was
no fear of group pressure. She also gave tests verbally, and
found that students’ anxiety was diminished this way.
She delivered papers at conferences and published her
research findings in a variety of journals—she is a co-editor
of the journal Contemporary Issues in Education Research. Her
mother became a collaborator, as well as Dr. Leslie Jones,
associate professor of education. The two Nicholls faculty
members asked Robichaux to help them examine attitudes
of Nicholls students toward learning.
After returning to Auburn to work on a National Science
Foundation research grant, Robichaux joined the Mississippi
State faculty in 2007.
FA L L 2 010 17
Faces of Nicholls
Hoffmann graduated from Nicholls magna cum laude in
1976 and was accepted into the clinical chemistry program at the LSU Medical Center in New Orleans. During
her time as a graduate student, Hoffmann was a member
of the research team that received the 1977 Nobel Prize
in physiology or medicine. After earning master’s and
doctoral degrees in clinical chemistry, she embarked on a
career as a biochemist at the National Institutes of Health
and Tulane University Medical Center.
Hoffman had a pivotal year in 1989. At age 34, she
began experiencing significant hearing loss in her right
ear. Doctors told her that she had a baseball-size tumor
pushing against her brain, and it required emergency
brain surgery. During the 10-hour procedure, Hoffmann
suffered a massive stroke that took away her ability to
speak, walk, talk, or eat. Over the next three years, Hoffman endured intensive physical and speech therapy to
relearn these basic life skills.
In an effort to improve the dexterity of her right hand,
Hoffmann enrolled in art classes at Nicholls. The classes
opened the floodgate of her undeveloped artistic abilities.
Class after class, semester after semester, she excelled—at
etching, painting with watercolors and oils, printmaking,
and embossing. In 1999, she earned a bachelor’s degree in
fine arts, cum laude.
Since then, Hoffman has created countless works of art
that have been showcased across the country and received
a bevy of awards. What does she rely on to get her creative juices flowing, day after day?
“I see beauty in nature. When I see the beauty, I see
Inspired by nature
by Renee Piper
T
Susan Talbot Hoffmann was
a member of the medical
research team that received
the 1977 Nobel Prize.
God,” she said. “There is nothing so beautiful as sunlight
on flowers.”
Fortunately, Hoffmann need not look far for inspiration. She and her husband, Dr. Andrew Hoffmann, and
her constant companion, a dog named Charcoal, live in
a picturesque Victorian-style home that is surrounded by
lovely, freely blooming flower gardens that are often the
subjects of her artwork.
What’s next for Hoffmann? “Living out God’s plan in
my life every day,” she said. Hoffman believes that her
brain tumor and subsequent stroke were a great blessing
for her: “I don’t believe that anything occurs by coincidence. It’s all part of God’s plan.”
hibodaux native Susan Talbot Hoffmann began flexing her artist
skills at an early age—focusing on portraits of local children, cats
and dogs, and Barbie-esque fashion designs. At age 16, when she
enrolled at Nicholls under the High Ability Student Program,
her drawing took on a more scientific style. As a chemistry major,
Hoffmann put her artistic ability to good use: illustrating university
lab manuals with drawings of organisms she viewed under the
microscope. Her skillfully illustrated manuals were highly coveted
by chemistry students and handed down to underclassmen, year
after year.
“I’ve known I have a God-given gift since the age of five or so,” Hoffman said. What she
did not know is that the full extent of that gift would not be realized until decades later.
18
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Thibodaux artist Susan Hoffmann at work in her studio. She earned a degree in fine arts at Nicholls after her stellar career in
biochemistry was halted by illness.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 19
Bridging
the Learning Gap
Dyslexia and other learning disorders do not stop these Colonels.
by Renee Piper
W
hat does Sara Zeringue, an 18-year-old
Nicholls student, have in common with
Muhammad Ali, Walt Disney, John Lennon, and an estimated 10 to 15 percent
of people on the planet? Like them, she
A common misconception about people with
dyslexia is that they see letters or words scrambled or
backwards. This is not true. Dyslexia does not cause
visual miscues; it causes phonological (sounding)
problems. Related disorders include: attention deficit
disorder, an attention and concentration disability;
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, hyperactivity and impulse disorder in addition to the attention
and concentration disability; and dyscalculia, a math
learning disability.
In the not so distant past, students like Zeringue who
could not keep up with their peers because of learning
disabilities had a difficult time succeeding in college.
That’s no longer the case at Nicholls thanks to the professionals at the Louisiana Center for Dyslexia and Related
Learning Disorders.
“If I didn’t have the center to help me, I definitely
wouldn’t do as well in school. I have trouble studying
alone, and I need the center to keep me on task, to keep
me focused,” Zeringue said.
The center is located in the heart of the Nicholls
campus for easy access. Its mission is to provide specialized educational services to members of the community
and Nicholls students who are dyslexic or have other
related learning disorders. It is the only center of its kind
in Louisiana.
“When we opened our doors in the early 1990s, we
were providing services to about five Nicholls students
per semester. Today, we average 120 students per semester,” Karen Chauvin, center director, said. “It’s not that
the number of people being diagnosed with dyslexia and
has a learning disability called dyslexia.
Dyslexia is an inherited condition that
makes it extremely difficult to read, write,
Karen Chauvin, M.Ed., directs the Louisiana Center for Dyslexia and
Related Learning Disorders at Nicholls.
related learning disorders has grown, it’s that people are
finding out that we’re here, and we can help.”
Dyslexia does not discriminate. Anybody can have
it. Although it is an inherited disorder, no correlation
has been found between the incidence of dyslexia and
ethnicity or nationality. It’s quite likely that someone you
know has been diagnosed with dyslexia.
Common characteristics of dyslexia are problems
learning the names of the letters of the alphabet, difficulty learning to write the alphabet in the correct
sequence, difficulty learning to read and with reading
comprehension, repeated erratic spelling errors, delayed
motor milestones, delay in learning to talk, and a family
history of similar problems.
“
When the time comes,
and [our students]
need to function on
their own, we’ve
taught them the skills
to do so.
”
—Karen Chauvin
and spell. It is neurologically based and interferes with the brain’s ability to capture and
process language.
A dyslexic person involuntarily uses the right hemisphere of the brain instead of the left
to read and spell. The brain’s left hemisphere is very skilled at matching a letter with its
appropriate sound. The right hemisphere is responsible for processing the concepts of space
and patterns, and doesn’t know how to process parts of speech, or keep track of letter-order
in spelling. Therefore, the results of trying to read using the right hemisphere instead of the
left can create processing chaos in the dyslexic person’s brain.
Staff members at the center
enable students to succeed.
20
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Sara Zeringue
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 21
‘They taught me
how to learn’
“I knew college would be a different world
compared to high school—and because I’m dyslexic, I
knew I would need all the help I could get,” said Ryan
LeCompte, a 2003 Nicholls graduate. “The center
was a determining factor in my college decision. In
fact, it’s why I choose Nicholls.”
“It’s remarkable how the center helps students,”
LeCompte said. “Once you become a part of the center, they stay with you throughout your college career.
After your freshman year, they’ve got you all figured
out. They know how to translate the classroom information into something that you can understand—if
you need charts, they’ll make charts; if you need a
discussion, they’ll discuss. It’s specialized learning. I
believe I’m capable of learning anything now, because
the center staff taught me how to learn.”
LeCompte is employed at Fletcher Technical Community College as the coordinator for the Academic
Learning Resource Center, and he attributes his career
success to the skills he learned at the center. “Some of
the students I work with have learning disabilities and
some do not, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I
can teach any subject to anyone. Using methods and
techniques that I learned at the center, I can now help
my students learn. I’m proud to be able to pass on the
gift of learning to others.”
Ryan LeCompte
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The effects of dyslexia vary from person to person, but for Zeringue
dyslexia has been a lifelong challenge. “Grammar school and middle
school were really tough. I can remember my second-grade teacher being
really hard on me. She thought I was lazy and unmotivated,” she said.
“My third grade teacher recognized I had a problem. She told my parents
that she thought I had ADHD and dyslexia. My parents took me for testing and discovered the teacher was right. A lot of kids made fun of me
because they thought I was dumb. I wasn’t dumb; I just have a different
way of learning.”
The dyslexia center is one of the reasons Zeringue chose Nicholls. “I
knew they understood how I learn,” she said. Thanks to the center, all
eligible Nicholls students can get the help and assistance they need to
succeed despite dyslexia. To qualify for the center’s services, students must
have a current learning-disorder diagnosis along with average or above
average intellectual ability. They meet all regular requirements for admission, including ACT scores.
Once eligibility is confirmed and the student pays the $525 per semester
fee, helpful services are available through the center’s College Program.
These include a support system that helps students integrate into university
life; remediation tutoring in English, math, and reading; academic planning
assistance with scheduling and registration; access to the center’s specialized
computer lab; and assistance with academic accommodations.
The $525 fee is a very good value, Chauvin said. There is no limit to
the number of hours a center student can receive tutoring. Staffers read
tests aloud to the students. They have access to cutting-edge software in
the center-dedicated computer lab. And they can make unlimited photocopies on the center’s copy machine.
One of the specialized software programs the center’s students have
access to is the Kurzweil program: a reading, study skills, and writing
program that translates text into speech. Using a scanner, students simply
scan their textbooks into the computer and the program reads the text
back to them, highlighting the most important information.
The center stays abreast of the latest tutoring and teaching techniques
for students with learning disabilities by attending conferences and
workshops. “The tutoring offered to our students is tailored specifically to
their needs. Traditional tutoring speaks a different language, if you will, a
language our students have trouble understanding,” said Rachel Hebert,
College Program coordinator.
In addition to receiving specialized learning-disorder training, the
center staff are trained as master advisors by the university. The master
advisor training enables the staff to help students with scheduling. “We
provide an extra layer of advising for our students,” Chauvin said. “First,
the center students go to their assigned university advisor to determine
their scheduling needs so that they stay on track to graduate. Next, they
bring that information to us and we help recommend the best schedule
for them and their particular needs.” The staff usually advises students
to avoid scheduling classes back-to-back. Having a break between classes
provides time to study and process the information from the first class
before the second class begins.
The center staff also assists students with academic accommodations.
These include extended time to complete assignments, taped lectures and
textbooks, tests read aloud, and preferential seating. “Something as simple
as reading a test aloud can make a huge impact on a student’s success,”
Chauvin said.
The center not only helps students successfully navigate their way
through all areas of the university experience from enrollment to
graduation, it teaches them the skills to be independent along the way.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Success specialists
The Louisiana Center for Dyslexia
and Related Learning Disorders staff.
Karen Chauvin, M.Ed.
Director
June Benoit
Administrative Coordinator 3
Rachel Hebert, M.Ed.
College Program Coordinator
Jason Talbot, assessment and research coordinator, works with a student to improve reading comprehension and study skills.
“One of our main goals is to teach students how to
be self-advocates,” Chauvin said. “We’re there to help
show them the way, but when the time comes, and
they need to function on their own, we’ve taught them
the skills to do so.”
In addition to the College Program services, the center
also provides assessment, tutoring, and training services
to a broader community.
The center added an assessment department about
10 years ago that offers psychological evaluations for
adults, students, and children ages six and older to
provide dyslexia or related disorder diagnoses. “We
do about 110 assessments annually,” Jason Talbot,
coordinator of the assessment department, said. Talbot,
a licensed school psychologist, works closely with Dr.
J. Stephen Welsh, a licensed psychologist and former
head of the Nicholls Department of Psychology and
Counselor Education.
The center staff is called upon by school districts and
the Louisiana Department of Education to present workshops on how to effectively teach students with learning
disabilities. Over 3,000 Louisiana schoolteachers attend
the workshops annually.
“Students with learning disabilities who participate in
the center’s programs increase their chance at success,”
Chauvin said. “Statistics show that the graduation rate
of our center students runs neck-and-neck with the university’s overall graduation rate. I am very proud of that
accomplishment. I know that without the involvement of
the center the success rate would not be as high.”
Chauvin said she gains a tremendous sense of satisfaction from helping teach students who previously struggled
to learn: “I can’t imagine a more rewarding career.”
Chauvin expects the center to expand in the future. “I think the center will continue to grow and attract more and more students. Currently, most of our
students are from Louisiana, but I think that balance
will shift as more parents and students from around
the country hear about the services we offer. Nicholls
will become more of a destination for students with
dyslexia—because with the center’s help, they, too,
can succeed.”
Paula Hotard, M.Ed.
College Program Coordinator
Octave Hymel, MBA
College Program Coordinator
Ashley Munson, M.Ed.
Senior College Program
Coordinator
Tracy Purvis, B.A.
Assistant College Program
Coordinator
Jason Talbot, S.S.P.
Assessment and Research
Coordinator
J. Stephen Welsh, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology and
Acting Dean, College of Education
Rhonda Zeringue
Administrative Secretary
Who’s dyslexic?
Lots of people—10 to 15 percent of everyone on Earth. People you may recognize. Ansel Adams, Muhammad Ali, Fred Astaire, Alexander Graham Bell, George Burns, Cher, Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Tom Cruise, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Albert
Einstein, Harrison Ford, Henry Ford, Benjamin Franklin, Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson,
Bruce Jenner, Magic Johnson, John F. Kennedy, John Lennon, Jay Leno, Leonardo da Vinci, Carl Lewis, W. A. Mozart, George Patton, Pablo Picasso, Nelson Rockefeller, Nolan Ryan, Tom Smothers, Ted Turner, Werner von Braun, George Washington, Robin
Williams, Henry Winkler, F. W. Woolworth, and W. B. Yeats.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 23
Not your
grandfather’s
Nicholls
Students, technology, the world outside—
all are rapidly making Nicholls a very different place.
by Tony Cook
W
ith the first decade of the
21st century now part of
history, those of us who
were born in the 20th
century and perhaps
lived our formative
years during that dearly
departed era are now
feeling like guardians
of a number of sacred
treasures. These treasures are not so much material objects as they
are intangibles, like knowledge of arcane technologies and ways of
living no longer in wide practice.
24
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Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 25
Such as?
Such as: Carburetors. Telephones with coiled cords and
rotary dials. Girdles. Electric ranges with coil burners. TV
sets with rabbit ears. Reader’s Digest condensed books. Car
radios with pushbutton tuners. Motel swimming pools
with diving boards. Mail order catalogs. Converse AllStars made in North Carolina. Bias-ply tires. Wearing a tie
to Sunday school.
These and many other things commonly encountered in
the last century have been supplanted by new technologies
and new ways of living that today’s Nicholls students—
but not their parents or grandparents, necessarily—enjoy
without any sense of how radical they are.
Like?
Like: iPods. iPhones. Droids. Camisoles worn as outergarments. Texting. HBO on demand. MP3s. Blu-ray discs.
Continuously variable transmissions. Blogging. Memory
foam mattresses. Tats. Plasma TVs. Compact fluorescent
light bulbs. Satellite radio. Digital cameras.
The world of 2010 is a very different place than the
world of, say, 1990. A skeptic might respond to this
observation by pointing out that the world of 1980 was
a very different place than the world of 1960, and so on
and so forth. Correct. Yet, with the widespread acceptance
and use of computer-based communications technologies
that were first made available to the general public about
25 years ago, and that have been rapidly refined and
continuously improved ever since, the pace of change has
quickened.
Tempus fugit. Or so they say.
Time most definitely is a measure of social change. We
categorize changes by the decade in which each occurred,
or began to occur, or spanned, or ended. The Fifties. The
Sixties. The Eighties. The Two Thousands, which sounds
like a pretty giant leap, doesn’t it, from the Nineties. Did
one New Year’s Day conjoin those two decades or did
1,901 years pass? Time would need to pass really fast to
make that work.
With the widespread acceptance and
use of computer-based communications
Speaking of social change: This writer remembers a
time when university faculty members seemed to move
about in a rarefied atmosphere that undergraduate
students were incapable of penetrating. They, and most
of the students, probably would have been mortified had
their bubble been popped—or even pricked too seriously.
Today’s technologies make yesterday’s campus protocol
seem quaint.
In 2010, the Internet site ratemyprofessor.com enables
students to publicly, if anonymously, not only assess, that
is judge, their professors but to share those judgments with
anyone who cares to read them.
“Witty, cute, and fun,” says one Nicholls student of a
professor last year. “She’s such a firecracker. Magnifico!”
Not overly presumptuous, perhaps—no more eyebrowraising than comments undergraduates might have made
to one another well out of the subject’s earshot in the days
before the Internet allowed everyone to whisper secrets in
the full light of the CRT (now the LCD) display.
How about this one?
“Great accent, real cute, highly intelligent, and a fantastic teacher. A total hottie.”
“Hottie,” in case you are managing somehow to live
off the grid (out of reach of technology), is a 21-century
synonym for “sexy beast,” “fox,” or “dreamboat.”
Daily life on the campus of a public university such
as Nicholls has never been truly formal in the way that it
once was in the private academies and colleges back East
and over in Europe. In 2010, though, we are more casual
than ever and informality is the rule, not the exception.
“There is no reason to maintain a ‘respectful distance’
from one’s students,” said one Nicholls educator. “Quite
opposite from destroying traditional roles of expert and
novice, today’s technology is making it easier than ever
before to interact with our students—to help them learn
what we are trying to teach them. People who are upset by
having to text assignments to their students or receive student papers by e-mail are in danger of becoming fossils.”
Nicholls students in 2010 are many things, but one
thing they all are is consumers. The education they seek is,
in their eyes, a product. There is nothing arcane or esoteric
about this market-economics perspective on higher education. The degree they will receive upon successful acquisition of knowledge—the B.A. in x, the B.S. in y—identifies
them as persons prepared to fill certain economic roles.
technologies that are rapidly refined and
continuously improved, the
pace of
change has quickened.
In this new paradigm of higher learning, the idea of
education for its own sake is as outdated as an IBM PC
running MS-DOS. Today’s Nicholls students were born
more than a decade after dot commands were abandoned
for GUI. (If this lingo is confusing you may want to consider how out of touch you have become.)
Way back in 2003, when Dr. Stephen Hulbert arrived
in Thibodaux to take the helm as president of Nicholls,
the campus he inherited looked much the same as it had
a decade earlier—as if the relentless passage of time had
been less dramatic at this academic oasis beside Bayou
Lafourche. Worn-out, decrepit residence halls tested the
stamina of the hardiest students. (Did this elevator ever
work?) Getting a meal in the cafeteria was somewhat the
same experience as lining up for chow in a 1950s-era military mess hall (You want extra grease with your fried sausage?). Nicholls students did lots of lining-up back then.
The faculty Dr. Hulbert learned to know, and was
given the responsibility to lead, included some who could
remember the day in 1947 that the first shovelful of bayou
soil was turned to start building Elkins Hall. It included
some who pegged their pants and took dates wearing
poodle skirts to sock hops. It included survivors of the
Sixties counterculture, former hippies and flower children.
Even Marxists, skeptics of capitalism who earned their
doctorates during the decades when communist states
were the overarching threat to America’s national security,
held some faculty posts.
In the diversity of its faculty’s origins, perspectives,
and interests, Nicholls was—and is—quintessentially an
American public university. In its bayouside location, in
the history of its namesake, in its dependency on a quirky,
temperamental state legislature and a powerful governor,
it is quintessentially a Louisiana public university. In the
range of opportunity it delivers to its students and to the
community surrounding its green, bucolic campus, Nicholls is first and foremost a local university—the university
of choice for students living in the state’s parishes east of
Baton Rouge between the Mississippi River and the Gulf
of Mexico.
Back in 2003, Dr. Hulbert knew Nicholls needed to
change. Nothing can survive without keeping up with the
world around it, and the prime position is usually out front.
No stranger to the challenges of leading a university,
given the breadth of his prior experience at universities
in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Rhode Island, and Montana,
Hulbert wasted no time seeking solutions to the issues and
problems Nicholls faced on the day of his arrival. He is
disarmingly jocular, and his intelligence is evidenced in his
fluent public speaking ability.
Those traits have served him very well during his seven
years as Nicholls president.
Nothing can survive without keeping up
with the world around it, and the prime
position is usually out
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One of the first issues the Massachusetts-born educator faced at Nicholls was both a superficial and a highly
symbolic one: the appearance of the Nicholls Colonels
sports mascot, Col. Tillou. To most folks born and raised
in Louisiana, the white-bearded, grey-coated Tillou
seemed nothing more than a whimsical representation of
a revered Southern archetype: the gentleman soldier. To
other Louisianians, African-Americans, the old Colonel
seemed to celebrate an era when their human and political
rights were denied.
Hulbert, with characteristic decisiveness, banned the
old Colonel from the university and tasked student leaders
to work on a suitable replacement. That process lasted
six years. The new Col. Tillou leads the cheers at sports
events in 2010 wearing a bright red uniform topped off
with a contemporary-style military officer’s cap. Working
together in focus groups and committees, Nicholls students
brought their athletics mascot from the 19th century into
the 21st.
Although he purposely remained on the sidelines of the
mascot project, Hulbert took criticism—and continues to
receive it—as the Northerner who took away a cherished
symbol of the old Nicholls, which honors several Southern
gentleman soldiers in its name and the names of campus
buildings such as Polk Hall.
Such is the paradox of life in 21st century Louisiana,
where honoring the past seems to be much less essential
than preparing for the future, even while that past remains
starkly evident in the present day.
The list of preparations for the future of Nicholls under
the leadership of Dr. Hulbert is long and growing. While
he and his administrative team have been forced to deal
with unprecedented budget reductions in recent years,
something that requires very undesirable, double-edged
cuts—eliminating programs and reducing the number of
university employees—progress is being made at a rapid
pace.
Another paradox, but so it goes.
Nicholls students in 2010 enjoy an essentially brandnew science facility in Beauregard Hall, new residence
halls that opened amid the chaos of Hurricane Gustav’s
landfall, a renovated main dining hall that looks like an
Architectural Digest photo spread, and many impressive
campus-wide aesthetic improvements—not the least being haute waste cans emblazoned with a big red Nicholls
“N.” Construction of the long-awaited student recreation
center is about to get started, and financing is coming together to build a new complex for the ultra-successful John
Folse Culinary Institute—something Nicholls developed as
a result of its location in the Bayou Region and that makes
the university world-renowned.
Among advances in student achievement are the growing freshman retention rates, bolstered by the support
services centralized in University College—a Hulbert-era
innovation. Scholarship funding also is charting upward.
The president’s background includes expertise in student
services, and he has been diligent in keeping himself and
his team informed about students’ needs and their perspectives on the quality and value of a Nicholls education.
Undoubtedly, Nicholls will always be a remarkably
friendly place. As one student commented at studentsreview.com, “Nicholls is a home away from home. If you
need help all you need do is ask.”
Change, at whatever pace it may take—the smart
money is on fast—definitely is coming. Nicholls, placid
as its magnolia-scented campus may seem on a sunny
morning in the summer of 2010, is part of that rapidly
advancing future.
Remember when?
They don’t.
The Beloit College Mindset List, published each fall since 1998 to note “cultural touchstones”
in the lives of students entering college, included these for members of the Class of 2013, most of
whom were born in 1991.
• They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
• The European Union has always existed.
• There has always been a Cartoon Network.
• There have always been flat screen televisions.
• Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
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Tough, adaptable plants
Researchers are restoring the state’s native plants to their native places
A
by Graham Harvey
few minutes east of the main Nicholls campus is a 277-acre plot of land, known locally as
the Nicholls Farm.
Visitors who walk around the farm will probably encounter very few surprises. They’ll
see greenhouses, barns, an office building, cultivated land, uncultivated land, and various
pieces of agricultural equipment—all familiar signs letting visitors know that they are, in
fact, visiting a standard farm.
But not too far from the greenhouses, the visitor will happen upon something that
doesn’t quite belong in Thibodaux—a sand dune, dotted with sea oats and gulf bluestem.
This artificial dune, along with its mini-crop, is part
of the Louisiana Native Plant Initiative (LNPI)—a
multi-institution effort that includes Nicholls. The
initiative’s mission is to collect, preserve, increase, and
study native grasses, forbs, and legumes from Louisiana
ecosystems. In doing so, researchers hope to conserve
a vanishing natural resource and help jumpstart the
development of a native seed industry that will supply
plant materials for restoration, revegetation, roadside
plantings, and the ornamental plant industry.
The sea oats and Gulf bluestem on the Nicholls
Farm’s artificial sand dune are but two plants among
many that Nicholls researchers hope can be used to
curb the rapid loss of land and habitats on Louisiana’s
coast.
Dr. Quenton Fontenot, associate professor of biological
sciences and coordinator of the marine and environmental
biology graduate program at Nicholls, says the major
problem is the lack of commercially available plant material adapted to Louisiana’s coastal environment.
Researchers agree that in order to achieve long-term
sustainability, conservation projects require plant materials that are native and adapted to the particular area
in question. Unfortunately, the native plants that are
needed—those that weather the summer stress, produce
sufficient biomass, tolerate high levels of precipitation
and humidity, and possess flowering dates, seed set,
and dormancy initiation that are in sync with local
wildlife—are not available in sufficient quantities for
restoration projects in south Louisiana.
The solution, naturally, is to identify and cultivate as
many tough, adaptable, wild native plants as possible.
“We need as high an amount of genetic diversity as
we can maintain,” Fontenot said.
To that end, the Nicholls Farm’s greenhouses and
outdoor crops are full of specimens which, researchers
hope, will soon be commercially available—thus resulting in substantial ecological and economic benefits for
the state.
Specimens include live oaks from Grand Isle, black
Nicholls greenhouses contain reserves of black mangroves and other plants.
Billy Finney, a marine and environmental sciences graduate student, is shown
here trimming roots.
Botany lexicon
Biomass - the density of plants growing in an area at a given time.
Ecotype - a distinct plant species occupying a particular habitat.
Forb - a herbaceous flowering plant other than a grass.
Legume - a plant with seeds that grow in pods, such as peas.
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Specially shaped pots force plant roots to grow vertically, which helps with planting. Graduate student Billy Finney, left, and
vegetation specialist Gary Fine examine a plant growing in their care.
mangrove, and various grasses and wildflowers, among
other vegetative and seed-producing plants. In 2008,
the university dedicated a total of 25 acres for salttolerant trees and shrubs, from which seeds are to be
harvested for restoration.
“It’s also important to understand that we are looking
for plants with wildlife value,” says Dr. Allyse Ferrara,
associate professor of biological sciences at Nicholls.
“We’re not necessarily looking for the quickest growing
plants or the tallest plants—but those that can live in
sync with the entire ecosystem, all year long.”
Together with Fontenot, Ferrara is the primary LNPI
researcher at Nicholls. They also recruit students to
help operate the farm facilities—including graduate
students working on their master’s theses, internship
students, and students involved in service-learning
projects.
Gary Fine, vegetation specialist and research scientist, manages the day-to-day operations of the university’s LNPI effort.
In addition to Nicholls, organizations in the Louisiana Native Plants Initiative—structured within the past
six years—include the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Barataria–
Terrebonne National Estuary Program, McNeese State
University, and University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Live oak acorns, foreground, will join others already planted on the 25-acre Maritime Forest Preserve at the Nicholls Farm. From
left are Gary Fine, Dr. Allyse Ferrara, and Dr. Quenton Fontenot.
Funding is provided via grants from the Louisiana
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation
Service, the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana,
and the Gulf of Mexico Foundation.
Given recent budgetary constraints, noted Fontenot,
the LNPI has reached maximum production and
development of local ecotypes. Additional funding is
therefore necessary to secure needed infrastructure and
permanent, full-time staff.
The oil spill and LNPI
The Louisiana Native Plant Initiative (LNPI) team is responding to the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
When is a rose not a rose?
As the crisis unfolded in May, Dr. Quenton Fontenot said 3,000 mangrove plants
were ready for coastal restoration efforts related to the oil spill’s effects. University
personnel prepared several acres at the Nicholls Farm to aid in cultivating additional
While plant species native to south Louisiana are commercially available, they are grown in places that have a different environmental regime. For example, someone from North Dakota is still human, but probably doesn’t tolerate
a south Louisiana summer as well as a human who has grown up in Louisiana. A species like switchgrass is found
in south Louisiana as well as other parts of the country. If we take commercially available switchgrass from, say,
Arkansas, it will not survive our summers. Therefore, we are finding wild stands of switchgrass in south Louisiana, and
propagating those plants.— Dr. Quenton Fontenot
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locally adapted coastal plants to replace plants killed by the oil.
Nicholls also set up a temporary animal rehabilitation center at the farm to assist
the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, with a barn for recovering animals and two 12-foot circular tanks for marine life.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Mangrove thrives in coastal Louisiana.
FA L L 2 010 33
Louisiana
Gallery
native plants
Misty McElroy, a 2003 Nicholls graduate, is the university’s campus photojournalist. She’s an expert with the digital SLR
camera and enjoys using new tools such as the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone, which produced these photos.
Live Oak
“
Black Mangrove
Sea Oats
These images are
from a series I am
doing for the Nicholls
Facebook page.
Gulf Bluestem
Gulf Muhly
Gulf Cordgrass
Little Bluestem
Wooly Rose Mallow
”
—Misty McElroy
Cluster Bushmint
Indiangrass
Big Bluestem
Rattlesnake-Master
Hoarypea
Kansas Gayfeather
Indian Plantain
Slender Mountain-Mint
An artificial sand dune at the Nicholls Farm hosts plants that can help restore Louisiana’s
damaged wetlands. Research scientist Gary Fine expertly cares for the plants.
Shiny Coneflower
Yellow Wild-Indigo
Prairie Aloe
Ashy Sunflower
Rough Coneflower
Meadow Beauty
Pale Purple Coneflower
Yellow Indian-Blanket
Prairie Bluetets
Dense Gayfeather
Nutall’s Prairie Parsley
Prairie Petunia
Azure Blue Sage
Slender Bluestem
Compass Plant
Sweet Goldenrod
Louisiana Iris
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Plant maven
Former USDA expert nurtures thousands of native plants at Nicholls
G
ary Fine, vegetation specialist and
Nominated for that high honor by Dr. Allyse Ferarra,
research scientist at the Nicholls
associate professor of biological sciences, Fine has over-
Farm, spearheads the day-to-day
seen the production of tens of thousands of coastal and
operations of the Louisiana Native
upland plants for a variety of restoration and research
Plant Initiative. Fine started working with the Nicholls
research team after retiring from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture.
In 2009, he received an honorary doctorate, the
highest form of recognition offered at Nicholls. Recipients are honored for achievements relevant to the
projects within the LNPI.
He has also assisted Nicholls faculty with the implementation of nearly $380,000 in restoration grants and
worked with approximately 60 Nicholls students on internships, research projects, and service learning projects.
Fine brings to his work a “tremendous pool of experi-
university, but their influence must extend beyond the
ence and knowledge that he has acquired during his 30
Bayou Region.
years in plant materials,” Ferrara said.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
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Colonel Pride
Nicholls is coach’s second family
by Brandon Rizutto
T
o say that Nicholls State University head
football coach Charlie Stubbs is well
traveled and brings a lot of success and
experience to the Colonels program is an
understatement. The Charleston, S.C.,
native is a veteran who has been in and around the collegiate game for over 30 years.
Stubbs, 54, has served as the offensive coordinator at seven
different schools including the University of Louisville (2007),
the University of Tulsa (2002-06), the University of Alabama
(1998-2000), the University of Nevada–Las Vegas (1996-97),
the University of Memphis (1994-95), and Oregon State
University (1985-1990). His start in the collegiate football
coaching business came at his alma mater, Brigham Young
University, where he was a graduate assistant in 1983-84.
Through the course of his career, Stubbs has worked
with some of game’s greats, such as Shaun Alexander and
Andrew Zow at Alabama, Harry Douglas and Brain Brohm
at Louisville, Isaac Bruce at Memphis, and Steve Young at
Brigham Young.
His teams earned many accolades including numerous
bowl game victories, the National Championship at BYU
in 1984, Conference-USA Championship in 2005 with
Tulsa, and Southeastern Conference Championship in
1999 at Alabama—the season that Stubbs was named the
SEC Offensive Coordinator of the Year.
Stubbs is also a published author of three books, all on
the subject of how to install and execute a wide-open offensive attack. His most recent book is 101 Playmakers and Special
Plays, published earlier this year.
Nicholls Head Football Coach Charlie Stubbs directs his players at practice in John L. Guidry Stadium.
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Despite decades of experience, impressive accolades,
and his well-received books, Stubbs had never been the
head coach of a program before arriving at Nicholls. He
received offers—even sparked some interest on the NFL
level. But he never held the top job until now.
Why?
“The timing really was never right for me to be a head
coach,” Stubbs said. “My family always comes first, and
I did what was best for us, not just for me. I have been
around and have seen what this profession can do to a
family, and I love them all too much to take any risks. It
would not have been fair to them.”
Stubbs and his wife Sandy have been happily married
for 34 years and have four children: Troy, Jay, Kimberly,
and Kyle. The couple vowed from the beginning to put
the family first always, and have never gone back on their
decision.
Stubbs tells a story exemplifying that commitment.
While working as offensive coordinator at Memphis, a
head coaching opportunity became available. However, his
son Troy was entering his senior year of high school.
“It would not have been right for me to be selfish,
uproot the family, and move when Troy had worked his
entire life to be his school’s starting quarterback. It would
have gone against what I have taught my children and
players, which is to stay the course and work hard for what
you want. Troy had worked hard; he deserved his time in
the spotlight.”
Many times throughout the coach’s career, the Stubbs
family voted on whether or not Charlie would take a new
job forcing the family to move.
Another prominent program was looking to hire Stubbs
when son Jay was entering his senior season on the prep
level.
“Like Troy, Jay was a very good quarterback in high
school, and I could not let him sacrifice for my professional advancement,” Stubbs said. “I love my children and
wife—I love them more than anything—and I wanted Jay
to have his time to shine as well.”
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Coach Charlie Stubbs is a veteran offensive coordinator who has helped his teams win
bowl games and conference championships.
“
Troy went on to play collegiate football at the Air Force
Academy, while Jay played at
Alabama.
Now that all his children are
starting families of their own or
are in college, Stubbs can finally
pursue an opportunity to be at the
helm of a program—at Nicholls.
But having the “head coach”
title is not what attracted Stubbs
to the Colonels. He is also his new
team’s offensive coordinator. Being able to do things the right way,
building a program from the ground up, was the attraction
that landed him in Thibodaux.
“Here I will have more insight into what is going on.
Serving as the offensive coordinator and head coach allows a hands-on approach, rather than being more of an
administrator,” said Stubbs. “I’m excited to be here. The
local area and the state of Louisiana have always produced great student-athletes. Having this area to recruit
from can only help our program.”
I’m excited to be here. The local
area and the state of Louisiana
have always produced great
student-athletes.
”
—Charlie Stubbs
FA L L 2 010 37
Colonel Pride
Thriving on life’s challenges
by Brandon Rizutto
O
Aside from football,
Uperesa’s biggest
challenge has
been facing and
defeating cancer.
ffensive line coach Keith Uperesa has done it all
in his career as a football player and coach. His
collegiate success at Brigham Young University
under Coach Charlie Stubbs led to the NFL,
where he played at Oakland and Denver. In
2005, he was an assistant coach under Urban Meyer at
Utah when the Utes went 12-0.
Uperesa has made other stops along the way, including
stints at Southern California, Idaho State University, and
the University of Nevada–Las Vegas. At USC, he was a
member of the coaching staff when the Trojans won the
2003 Orange Bowl.
The Honolulu, Hawaii, native also has been a collegiate
head coach, guiding Utah’s Snow College to a 35-8 record
over the course of four seasons, 1995-99.
“Everywhere I have been, there has been a challenge. If
you are a coach and in it for the right reasons, you enjoy
challenges,” he said.
Aside from football, Uperesa’s biggest challenge has
been facing and defeating cancer—twice. The first bout
came in 2006 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer
while working at UNLV.
“I was told right before we started our spring camp, and
it caught me off guard tremendously,” he said. “I went
through with the surgery, and everything went well with it.
I was fortunate.”
Uperesa then went cancer-free for three years until
February 2009 when he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
Meeting with his doctor, he learned that because they caught
it early, he had a better chance of beating the deadly disease.
“This last time, I took a beating with the radiation
therapy,” he said. “UNLV was outstanding in allowing me
to work my way back. I was also very fortunate to have my
wife stand by my side. She’s my rock.”
Uperesa and his wife, Kaipo, met in high school and
have been through much together. When cancer struck
him the second time, he again turned to her.
With his radiation treatments well underway by the time
UNLV started fall practice in 2009, Uperesa faced a dilemma. He wanted to continue coaching, but had trouble
sustaining the energy to stand through practice.
UNLV approved a golf cart for him to use during
practice, and Kaipo became his driver. “My wife, children,
and family have been there for me through all of this. I
could not have done it without them. I had a great deal of
people support me,” said Uperesa.
With numerous coaching accolades, a stint in the NFL
as a player with two teams, his children grown, and after
two battles with cancer, that would seem to be enough for
any man to retire.
Not Uperesa.
“Like I said, it’s a challenge, and football is football,” he
said.
“When I learned that Charlie Stubbs was going to
be the head coach at Nicholls, I became intrigued. The
area reminds my wife and me of where we grew up, and
I’m working with good people who are in it for the right
reasons,” he explained.
Head Coach Charlie Stubbs was appointed to the post
in January 2010, and has assembled a high-quality staff,
Uperesa being a prime example.
“Keith and I go back to BYU, and when I heard that he
was available and willing to come to Nicholls, I was very
excited,” said Stubbs. “He is a grounded man, and you
could see in spring practice that the players really respect
him. The guys love him and so do we.”
If you don’t see yourself in these pictures,
we’re missing you.
Join the Nicholls Alumni Federation
todAy.
For more information, e-mail jenny.thibodaux@nicholls.edu
or call 985.448.4111.
Keith Uperesa, center,
discusses a play with
coaches and players.
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Expressions
swamp palmettos actually grew in abundance just beyond
my back yard. All these picturesquely named places may
not be where you’d expect to find a kid who would become a college professor and DNA scientist.
In fact, college was not part of my ancestry. My mother,
for being named valedictorian of her graduating class at
Golden Meadow High School, was actually awarded a
college scholarship. But the nearest college for her was
LSU, and, convinced by her housewife mother and oysterman father that the happiness of this bayouside life didn’t
require higher education, Baton Rouge was simply too far
“up the bayou” for her.
That’s the story of many bayou folk from my parents’
generation. Whether following the traditions of their
ancestors to trawl for shrimp, trap for fur, drill for oil, or
keep home and mother children, for them the bayou was
the world.
However, in the early 1970s, my father initiated a grand
scheme—to send to college that part of the next generation that he and my mother raised in our home on Palmetto Lane. One by one, following successive high school
graduations, each of their five children, carrying bags
of oversized texts and spiral-bound composition books,
boarded a parish school bus at six o’clock in the morning
from the narrow strip of land between North Bayou Drive
and Bayou Lafourche. About 50 long miles and an hour
and a half later, through rain, fog, gnats, heat, and cold,
each arrived in front of the Student Union at Nicholls.
Twelve hours later, each arrived back home to study and,
hopefully, sleep.
And that’s the story of many bayou folk from my
Dr. John Doucet in his hometown, Golden Meadow, Louisiana, where he caught the bus to Nicholls.
generation, who took a bus ride up the many fingers of
that old, eerie hand to go to the only college they could
afford or afford to get to—Nicholls State University. In
my own bus-riding college days, I was surrounded by
future doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, oilfield workers, farmers, and lots of kids simply searching for a better way. We spent those long traveling hours studying,
playing cards, laughing, sweating, sleeping, naming the
highway potholes, and sometimes just watching the 50
miles of bayouside homes and businesses as they passed
by, all the while dreaming of how one day we’d contribute to the happiness of that bayouside life. And every
day, for about half of the day, Nicholls was our home.
I like to think of my parents’ legacy as an endowment
to Nicholls—not an endowment of thousands of dollars, hundreds of acres, or a classroom of computers, but
rather an endowment of dedicated students. Although my
father’s life ended just after his grand scheme had begun,
over the course of 16 years Nicholls produced from my
home in Golden Meadow two schoolteachers, two chemical laboratory managers, and me, a DNA scientist.
Nicholls, sitting in the palm of that long, eerie hand
reaching out across southeast Louisiana, drew me and kids
like me into new careers and new places that were never
envisioned from homes in their Golden Meadows down
Palmetto Lanes along Bayou Drives.
Today, one of those kids shares with his faculty colleagues at Nicholls the mission to continue and to extend
the university’s historical reach and draw upcoming
generations into the new careers and new places of the
new century.
“
I imagine these small
bayous as the long,
thin fingers of an old,
eerie hand reaching
out to the Gulf.
”
—Dr. John Doucet
Bayou Lafourche at Golden Meadow.
Up the road from Bayou Drive
by Dr. John Doucet
Genetics educator and researcher, editor, poet, award-winning
playwright, and Nicholls alumnus, Dr. John Doucet (B.S., chemistry,
1984) is distinguished service professor and head of the Department
of Biological Sciences at Nicholls, where he is also director of the
University Honors Program.
W
hen you look at a satellite image of
southeast Louisiana, you may notice
a particular site about a third of the
distance from Donaldsonville to the
Fourchon where Bayou Lafourche divides into the first of
many small bayous. Over the course of several thousand
years, floods of these bayous helped create the land of
the Lafourche Basin. Interestingly, that particular site—a
prehistoric delta of the Mississippi River—is the site of
present-day Thibodaux.
40
FA L L 2 010
We see such a satellite image every day on televised
weather reports. When I see this image, I imagine these
small bayous as the long, thin fingers of an old, eerie hand
reaching out to the Gulf. I was born and raised on one of
those fingers—the longest one, in fact—Bayou Lafourche.
Golden Meadow is my hometown. Named for its lush
fields of yellow wildflowers, the town during my childhood
was a bayouside fishing village, with tall booms of moored
trawling boats, occasional church steeples, and one small
water tower rising above the ribbon of successive shotgun
houses and Cajun cottages. The town also served as a service hub for the burgeoning oil industry, with supply houses,
boat companies, and notable restaurants and bakeries intermingled among the homes that lined Bayou Lafourche.
I was raised in Golden Meadow in a house along North
Bayou Drive all the way down Palmetto Lane, where
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 41
Honor Roll
Thank you!
$10,000 and above
Nicholls State University is grateful for all the donors listed here
who, through their generosity, have helped our students to attain
one of the great achievements on earth: an education.
Donations to Nicholls and the Nicholls Foundation by alumni,
friends, and corporations totaled $1.4 million during the 2009-10
fiscal year.
Donors are listed by giving level as of June 30, 2010. Every
effort has been made to publish a complete and accurate list.
Please call (985) 448-4134 to report an error or omission.
Nicholls is critically important to the region we serve. If you
would like to support our programs, please return the enclosed
envelope with a gift that reflects your commitment to and
appreciation of Nicholls State University. Your gift will help us
to enhance our programs that are so necessary for us to continue
our mission of educating students.
AGC Scholars
Mr. James H. Alexander
Anadarko Petroleum
AT&T Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Barker III
Baton Rouge Epicurean Society
Beta Marine Services LLC
BP Corp. North America Inc.
Capital One Bank
Mr. Arlen B. Cenac Jr.
Chevron Products Co.
Coca-Cola Enterprises Bottling Companies
Mr. Jude J. Guidry
Louisiana Pipeliners Association
Major Equipment and Remediation
McDermott International Inc.
Mr. R. E. “Bob” Miller
Nicholls State University Alumni Federation
Nicholls State University Foundation
Norman Swanner Big Boy Fund Inc.
Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin
Peltier Foundation
PPC Mechanical Seals
Scholarship America
Shaw Environmental Inc.
SmithBarney
Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Inc.
—Delta Section
South Louisiana Bank
The Gheens Foundation Inc.
The Shaw Group Inc.
US Bank
$5,000 to $9,999
ACT
Allied Shipyard Inc.
American Association of Drilling
Engineers/Lafayette Chapter
Auto-Chlor Services Inc.
Baptist Collegiate Ministries
Baton Rouge Area Foundation
Ms. Andrea Bollinger
Mr. and Mrs. Donald T. “Boysie” Bollinger
Bruce Foods Corp.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Bruno
Center for Pediatric and
Adolescent Medicine
Sponsor A+ event funds scholarships. Dr. Judy Theriot, left, professor emeritus, and ConocoPhillips
Dr. Allayne Barrilleaux, interim vice president for academic affairs, examine some CTCO Shipyard of Louisiana LLC
of the items donated for the silent auction held as part of the Nicholls Foundation’s
Entergy Corp.
15th annual Sponsor A+ Food and Wine Tasting Extravaganza in October 2009.
With funds raised at the annual event the Nicholls Foundation this year provided Mr. and Mrs. Jake Giardina
$120,000 to secure an $80,000 match from the Louisiana Board of Regents, thus Goldring Family Foundation
creating a pair of $100,000 endowed scholarships. At the recommendation of Dr. Mr. and Mrs. Stephen D. Gossen
David Boudreaux, vice president for institutional advancement, the scholarships will
Grand Isle Shipyard Inc.
be named in honor of the late George Picou and the late Norman Swanner. Both
men contributed to the growth and success of the Sponsor A+ scholarship fundrais- Jefferson Dollars for Scholars
er, which benefits Nicholls students with outstanding grades and leadership ability.
42
FA L L 2 010
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
The Jerry Ledet Foundation
JPMorgan Chase
Lady of the Sea General Hospital
Lafourche Parish Government
Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders
Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corp.
Marathon Oil Co.
Montco Offshore Inc.
Northwestern Mutual Foundation
Stephanie Hebert Insurance Agency Inc.
Terrebonne General Medical Center
Theriot Duet & Theriot Inc.
Thibodaux Regional Medical
Center Auxiliary
$1,000 to $4,999
100 Blackmen of St. Mary
Education Account
Active Network
Agriculture Alumni Association of NSU
Air Force Aid Society Inc.
Alaska Village Electric Cooperative Inc.
Allain–Lebreton Co. LLC
American Cancer Society Mid-South
Division Inc.
Aquilex Hydrochem
Aswell L. Picou Post No. 9608 VFW
Atchafalaya API Scholarship Fund
Atchafalaya Chapter American
Petroleum Institute
B & J Martin Inc.
Barriere Construction Co. LLC
Mr. and Mrs. Ron Bartels
Bayou Chapter Medical Managers
Bayou Industrial Group Inc.
Bayou Junior Woman’s Club
Birdsall Plaza LLC
Dr. and Mrs. Walter J. Birdsall Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Harold M. Block
Mr. and Mrs. Jerald P. Block
Block Law Firm
Mr. Matthew F. and Dr. Elizabeth Block
Ms. Charlotte Bollinger
Bollinger Shipyards
Dr. and Mrs. David E. Boudreaux
Bourg Lions Club
Bourgeois & Associates Inc.
Mrs. Clara C. Brady
Mr. and Mrs. Toby Brady
Mr. Troy Brady
Mr. and Mrs. Leon Breaux Jr.
Breaux Petroleum Products Inc.
Mr. Thomas C. Broome
Buquet Distributing Co. Inc.
Mrs. Glenny Lee Buquet
Mr. John P. Butler
Mr. and Mrs. Hugh F. Caffery
St. Martins establish Nolen Professorship. This fall, Nicholls will add a new title to be
awarded to one of its history faculty—the Mack Thomas Nolen Endowed Professorship in History, named for a professor emeritus of history who had a distinguished
career at the university. Mr. and Mrs. Louis St. Martin of Houma donated $60,000
to the Nicholls Foundation in February to establish the professorship, fulfilling the
eligibility requirements for an additional $40,000 in state matching funds. The St.
Martins also agreed to contribute an additional $10,000 over the next two years,
after which the investment itself will fund the position. Pictured from left are Dr. David
Boudreaux, vice president for institutional advancement at Nicholls, and Linda and
Louis St. Martin.
Mr. and Mrs. Corey Joseph Callais
Mr. Michael Callais
Campaign to Elect Norby Chabert
Cannata’s Family Market
Mr. and Mrs. Donald T. Carmouche
Cengage Learning
The Hon. and Mrs. Joel T. Chaisson II
Chaisson Senate Campaign Fund
Charitable Gaming
Mr. Kerry J. Chauvin
Chemtech Chemical Services LLC
Mr. and Mrs. Brian P. Cheramie
Chevron Matching Gift Program
Mr. and Mrs. Kirt Chouest
Chris Hailey Memorial
Chubb Foundation
Coastal Commerce Bank
Community Bank
Conrad’s Family Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Kurt J. Crosby
Drs. Ken and Maria Cruse
Mr. and Mrs. Allen J. Danos Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Garrett “Hank” Danos
Ms. Emily T. D’Arcangelo
Delta Chapter–American
Petroleum Institute
Dr. Alton F. Doody
Doucet and Adams Inc.
Ms. Iris Doucet
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Mr. Jack Doverspike
Mr. and Mrs. Daniels Duplantis Sr.
Mr. and Mrs. C. Berwick Duval II
Education is Freedom
Education Services Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Timothy A. Emerson
Enbridge
Environmental Defense
ExxonMobil Foundation
Dr. and Mrs. Carroll J. Falcon
Mr. and Mrs. Dean T. Falgoust
Dr. and Mrs. Quentin Falgoust
Femmes Natales
First American Bank
Mr. and Mrs. Mark P. Folse
Mr. Robert Ford
Foundation of Louisiana Bowling
Proprietors Association
Freeport–McMoRan Copper and
Gold Foundation
Mr. Kevin M. Gardner
Gaubert Oil Co. Inc.
Mrs. Pat Gaubert
Georgia Gulf Corp.
The Giardina Family Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Gilbert
Golden Meadow–Fourchon International
Tarpon Rodeo Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene G. Gouaux Jr.
FA L L 2 010 43
Honor Roll
Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo Association Inc.
Dr. and Mrs. Ridley Gros Jr.
Mr. James E. and Dr. Grace M. Gueydan
Mr. Dick Guidry
Mr. and Mrs. Tab A. Guidry
Gulf Island Fabrication Inc.
H.M.S. Fund
Mr. Gregory J. Hamer Sr.
Mr. and Mrs. Hugh E. Hamilton
Mr. and Mrs. John Hassell
Mr. and Mrs. Leo P. Hebert
Horatio Alger Association of
Distinguished Americans Inc.
Houma Regional Arts Council
Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence C. Howell
HTV
Dr. and Mrs. Stephen T. Hulbert
Mr. Ronald J. Hymel
International Gold and Silver Plate Society
International Scholarship and
Tuition Services Inc.
J. B. Levert Land Co. Inc.
Jones Insurance Services LLC
Dr. and Mrs. John J. Jones Jr.
Kappa Sigma Endowment Fund
Kathleen Blanco Campaign Fund
Kelly Love Scholarship Fund Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Kelton
Kids Helping Kids
Kiwanis Club of Houma
Kiwanis Club of Thibodaux
Kiwanis International Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Peter S. Knoop Jr.
The Kohler Foundation
L & M Botruc Rental Inc.
LA Society of Professional Surveyors
Lafourche Par Sheriff Office
Lafourche Parish School Board
Dr. and Mrs. Barry G. Landry
Ms. Laura Leach
Dr. Nolan P. LeCompte Jr.
Mr. and Jerry P. Ledet Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. James Leonard
Logan Aldridge CPA
Lor Inc.
Louis St. Martin APLC
Lynn M. LeBoeuf Memorial
Scholarship Fund
Dr. and Mrs. Neil J. Maki
Mr. Marvin V. Marmande Jr.
Martin Companies LLC
Masonic Educational Foundation Inc.
Ms. Jo Ann Matthews
Mr. and Mrs. John Melancon Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Meraux
Mr. Joe W. Moore
Morgan Keegan and Co. Inc.
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Bistro program moves to local hotel. Students prepare the dining room at the John
Folse Culinary Institute’s new Bistro location at the Carmel Inn in Thibodaux. The
university has signed an agreement to occupy the food and beverage space at the
hotel, located only a half mile from the Nicholls campus. This more than doubles the
food and beverage space occupied by the institute in Gouaux Hall and increases
its capacity to enroll students in the culinary program. The newly refurbished Carmel Inn facility seats 64 in the main dining room, modeled after a fine restaurant.
The remodeled kitchen space features cooking and baking equipment that would
be found in a large restaurant or hotel. The equipment was provided through the
Nicholls Foundation by leading manufacturers such as Hobart. None of it is fixed in
place, and it will be moved into the new John Folse Culinary Institute building when
it is completed on campus.
Morgan Stanley c/o Cybergrants, Inc.
National Football Foundation and
College Hall of Fame
National Merit Scholarship Corp.
Nexion Health Foundation
Northrop Grumman Ship Systems
Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
of Louisiana LLC
NSU Agriculture Alumni Association
Otto Candies LLC
Mr. and Mrs. Chris Pate
Patterson Cypress Sawmill Festival
Paul S. Morton Scholarship Foundation
Mr. Glynn P. Pellegrin
Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Pellegrin
Mrs. Grace F. Peltier
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen G. Peltier
Peoples Drug Store Inc.
Ms. Anne M. Perry
Mrs. Shirley D. Picou
Mr. and Mrs. Pat Pitre
PRO-NSU
R.S.I. Group Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Riché
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher H. Riviere
Mr. and Mrs. William J. Riviere
Robert J. Taylor Scholarship Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Robichaux Jr.
Robichaux Farms Inc.
Dr. and Mrs. Francis A. Robichaux II
Mr. and Mrs. Howard J. Robichaux
Rotary Club of Golden Meadow
RPC Inc.
Mr. Jonathan Russo
Sabiston Consultants LLC
Dr. Arunavathi T. Sangisetty
Second African Baptist Church
Mr. and Mrs. David Sehrt
Shell Oil Co. Foundation
Mr. Michael Shields
Mr. Ryne S. Simmons
Ms. Jennifer C. Smith
Mr. and Mrs. William Clifford Smith
Southern Association of Student Councils
Southland Conference
St. Charles Parish School Board
St. Mary Chamber of Commerce
St. Mary Industrial Group
State Farm Mutual Automobile
Insurance Co.
Stockard James LLC
SWDI LLC
Mr. Byron E. Talbot
Terrebonne Motor Co. Inc.
The Greater New Orleans Barge
Fleeting Association Inc.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Mr. Charles C. Theriot
Ms. Laura P. Theriot
Thibodaux Lions Club
Thibodaux Orthopaedic and Sports
Medicine Clinic
Thibodaux Regional Medical Center
Thibodaux Service League
Community Fund
Mr. Warren Triche Jr.
TWCP Lady Cavaliers Volleyball
Booster Club
United States Bowling Congress
Valentine Chemicals LLC
Vanguard Vacuum Trucks Inc.
VES Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Ernest A. Vicknair Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles K. Weaver Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Weimer
Mr. and Mrs. Lee Welch
West Feliciana 4-H Foundation Inc.
Whitney National Bank
Willis and Mildred Pellerin Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth M. Wood Sr.
Workplace Staffing Solutions
$500 to $999
Ms. Rachel Aaron
ACF – Junior Chapter of Nicholls
State University
Alaska Power Association Inc.
American Legion Robert Burns Post No. 16
Anchor Capital Advisors, LLC
Army Emergency Relief Atlanta Capital Management
Barataria–Terrebonne Estuary Foundation
Barnes & Noble College Bookstores Inc.
Dr. Allayne Barrilleaux
Bayou Society for Human
Resource Management
Beta Gamma Sigma Inc.
Block & Bouterie Attorneys at Law
Mr. Larry Calmes
Cenac Towing Co.
Charles M. McDonald, Sheriff Mr. Michel Claudet
Common Knowledge Scholarship
Foundation Inc.
Ms. Cindy Cook
Cowen Clinic for Rehabilitation
Medicine APMC
Dr. and Mrs. Todd D. Cowen
Cummins Mid-South
D & M Home Medical LLC
Dale A. Guidry Memorial Scholarship Fund
Darrell P Bourg Jr. DDS APDC
Dr. and Mrs. Albert Davis
Dennis R. Hebert Jr. Ministries
Dr. and Mrs. Eugene A. Dial Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Donner
Mr. and Ms. Leonard P. Duhé
Mr. David Duplantis PE
Duplantis Design Group PC
Ms. Carolyn Elder
Mr. and Mrs. Woody Falgoust
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Ferrara
Forest Hill Church of God
Foundation members among those receiving alumni honors. The Nicholls Alumni Federation conducted its annual Awards for
Excellence reception on March 28. The James Lynn Powell Award, the highest honor awarded to a Nicholls alumnus or alumna,
was presented to Arlen “Benny” Cenac Jr., an at-large member of the Nicholls Foundation board of directors. Cenac is a 1979
College of Business Administration graduate. The Honorary Alumnus Award went to James Gueydan, a Nicholls Foundation
member and benefactor. The Marie Fletcher Distinguished Service Award was presented to Associate Dean Randy Cheramie of the John Folse Culinary Institute. The Ramon J. Labat Award–presented to employees who have shown exceptional
professionalism–was given to Wendy Toloudis and Kathleen Guidry. A final award, the Corporate Mark of Honor, was presented
to Motivatit Seafoods Inc. Pictured from left are Dr. Stephen T. Hulbert, university president; Arlen “Benny” Cenac Jr.; Deborah
Raziano, director of alumni affairs; and Herbie Kimble, Alumni Federation president.
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
FA L L 2 010 45
Honor Roll
Fundraiser supports women’s athletics. Associate Dean Randy Cheramie of the John Folse Culinary Institute, left, assists with the
auction during the 11th annual Women’s Night Out, which took place May 6 at Cypress Columns in Gray. The event raises an
average of $50,000 a year to assist women’s athletics at Nicholls. These funds have financed bleachers for women’s soccer, an
infield and dugouts for women’s softball, lockers for women’s basketball and women’s volleyball, and javelins for women’s track
and field. Additionally, the event has enabled women student-athletes to attend summer school on scholarships.
Mr. and Mrs. Miles Forrest
Gusman for Criminal Sheriff Dr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Hansen Jr.
Haynie & Associates Inc.
Dr. and Mrs. Mark F. Hebert
Mr. Robert K. Jayne
JR Auxiliary
Ms. Evelyn Katz
Lab-A-Daux Home Improvement LLC
Lafourche Arc
Lafourche Parish United States
Bowling Congress
Lanaux & Felger CPAs
Ms. Cindy Larpenter
Mr. Perry LeBlanc
Louisiana Offshore Oil Port LLC
Ms. Stephanie McCollum
Meek Seafood Inc.
Dr. Michael Montgomery
Morvant and Cavell
Dr. Richard A. Morvant Jr.
NAACP NSU Chapter
New York Life Insurance
Noble Pac
Dr. and Mrs. Henry Peltier
Dr. Wayne J. Pharo
Pointe-Aux-Chenes Elementary School
46
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Police Jury Association of Louisiana Inc.
Real Estate Express LLC
Mr. and Mrs. Ray J. Riché
Rouses Enterprises LLC
Select Properties
Shaver-Robichaux Agency Inc.
South Central La. Chapter of the
Society of La. CPAs
South Louisiana Economic Council
South Louisiana Wild Fowl Carvers
St. Mary Chapter No. 4435, AARP
Stephen LeBlanc Memorial
Scholarship Fund
Superior Labor Services
Superior Shipyard and Fabrication Inc.
The State of Louisiana Headstart Assoc.
Thibodaux Surgical Specialists
Thibodaux Woman’s Club
Thibodaux Women’s Center
Thompson Construction Co.
Mr. and Mrs. George Toups
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Vicknair
Sheriff Craig Webre
Dr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Weed
Mr. and Mrs. Stevens C. Willett
Woodmen of the World Lodge
$250 to $499
Alabama–West Florida United
Methodist Foundation Inc.
American Legion–Jules G. Borgstede
Post 309
Mr. and Mrs. Blain Arthurs
Association Member Benefits Advisors
Dr. and Mrs. Donald J. Ayo
Dr. and Mrs. James Barr
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Bednarz
Mr. Jeffrey D. Beech
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony L. Boudreaux
Mr. Mark Britz
Mr. and Mrs. Brandon S. Brooks
Dr. Keri A. Cataldo
Dr. John J. Cavan
Dr. and Mrs. Camile L. Chiasson
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Christensen
Mr. and Mrs. Leslie J. Clement Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Michael G. Davis
Delta Kappa Gamma Society —
Iota Chapter
DMC Consultors LLC
Dr. and Mrs. Stephen E. Ellender Jr.
Mr. Jay P. Fakier
Dr. and Mrs. Robert J. Foret
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Gallagher III
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Mr. and Mrs. Mark P. Gisclair
Ms. Bridget Guidry
Ms. Kellie S. Hebert
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin G. Jones
Jubilee Festival of the Arts and Humanities
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Klausner
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Kolwe
Lafourche Parish Retired Teachers
Dr. and Mrs. Alex Lasseigne
Mr. Scott Louviere
Mr. and Mrs. Steven M. McCabe
Mr. Kirk Meche
Miracles by Arlene
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Montreuil
Mrs. and Mr. Ann R. Morris
Mr. Richard L. Naquin
New York Times Co. Foundation Inc.
Oaklawn Jr. High School
Ms. Edna Marie S. Pastor
Mr. William and Dr. Alice Pecoraro
Ms. Megan Pelloquin
Mr. Royce and Dr. Rebecca T. Pennington
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce E. Ponson
Dr. and Mrs. Robert J. Quinilty
Mrs. Jane Rabalais
Mr. and Mrs. Gary Shult
Southeastern Development Foundation
Spahr’s Seafood
St. Mary Parish School Food
Service Association
Mr. and Mrs. Gregg P. Stall
Tessie Cantrelle Insurance Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Francis Thibodeaux
Mr. Ron M. Thibodeaux
$100 to $249
Mr. and Mrs. Keith Adams
Mr. and Mrs. Kerry L. Alley
Mr. E. A. Angelloz
Mr. and Mrs. Curtis A. Arcement
Bayou Lafourche Arts Council
Bebe–F Real Estate LLC
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel M. Blanchard
Dr. and Mrs. Irving M. Blatt
Mr. Larry P. Boudreaux
Mr. and Mrs. Glynn T. Boyd
Mr. and Mrs. Randy Breaux
Ms. Mary G. Breaux
Mr. Travis M. Brown
Bundy Enterprises Inc. DBA
Signature Salon
Mr. and Mrs. Kirk R. Bynum
The Hon. and Mrs. Charles Caillouet
Mrs. Gloria B. Callais
Ms. Viona L. Chabert
Mr. Breck D. Chaisson
Mr. and Mrs. Todd J. Cheramie
Mr. Charles B. Cinnater
Mrs. Edith M. Conkerton
Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Conrad
Mr. and Mrs. Leslie J. Daigle
Dr. and Mrs. Terry Dantin
Mr. Gayle B. Dellinger
Delta Music Co. Inc.
Mr. William F. Diehl
Doerle Food Services LLC
Mr. and Mrs. Jules A. Dornier III
Mr. Ryan N. Dubina
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph D. Elfert
Mr. and Mrs. David Elmore
Mr. and Mrs. Eddie J. Evans Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Robert N. Falgout
Ms. Janet B. Felix
Dr. Quenton C. Fontenot and
Dr. Allyse Ferrara
Mr. and Mrs. Luke Ford Jr.
Ms. Denise H. Fox
Mr. and Mrs. Wynn Fremen
Mr. and Mrs. Antoine N. Gautreaux Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Guy Gautreaux
Ms. Nicole M. Giroir
Mr. A.W. Glisson
Mr. Michael G. Goff
Gossen–Holloway & Associates
Mr. Louis Gouaux
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas P. Graves
Dr. and Mrs. John H. Green
Ms. Malynda M. Guarisco
Ms. Linda Harris
Ms. Ann T. Hebert
Mr. and Mrs. Eddie J. Hebert
Drs. Leo and Carolyn Hebert
Ms. Mary Henry
Mr. and Mrs. Skipper Holloway
House Rentals DBA Surgical
and Hospital Supplies
J.B. Levert Foundation
Drs. James W. and Ann L. Jackson
Justice John L. Weimer
Re-election Committee Inc.
Ms. Ana L. Kearns
Dr. Marilyn B. Kilgen
Mr. and Mrs. Kirk Kliebert
Ms. Kathryn H. Labat
Mr. Charles A. LeBlanc
Dr. and Mrs. Wes Magee III
Dr. Steven J. Marcello
Mr. and Mrs. Burton B. Marmande
Ms. Diane T. Martin
Ms. Sarah M. Masterson
Dr. and Mrs. Shawn Mauldin
MC Bank
Mr. Jerome S. McKee
Mr. and Mrs. Terry J. McMillian
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
Ms. Layne E. Mistretta
Mr. and Mrs. Benny Musso
Thomas O’Connor
Mr. and Mrs. Lee Orgeron
Mr. Kirby J. Pellegrin
Peterson Agency Inc.
Phi Delta Kappa
Philip Matherne Memorial
Scholarship Foundation Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. David Plater
Pre–Professional Medical Assoc.
Dr. Sonya Premeaux
Mr. and Mrs. Michael S. Rabalais
Mr. Kenneth C. Rachal
Dr. Susan W. Roark
Mr.Tim P. and
Dr. Susan Michele Robichaux
Mr. Dean Robinson
Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Rodrigue
Mr. James and Dr. Paulette R. Rodrigue
Ms. Eva Shanklin
Mr. Thomas Simons Jr.
Mr. Steven J. Sissac
Stagni & Co. LLC
Mr. Glynn H. Stephens
Mr. and Mrs. Roy T. Sternfels
Dr. J. B. Stroud
Dr. Herminio Suazo
Ms. Claire E. Tatum
Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas J. Terracina
Thibodaux Literary Club
Mr. and Mrs. Gregory J. Torres
Mr. and Mrs. Donnie Tynes
Mr. Larry Verzwyvelt
Virtus Enterprises LLC
Mr. and Mrs. Barry J. Waguespack
Justice and Mrs. John L. Weimer
Mr. and Mrs. Sam B. Wofford Jr.
Women’s Missionary Council CME Church
Xavier University of Louisiana
Mr. Thaddeus Zeringue
$99 and under
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Allen Alexander Jr.
Ms. Tylette Alexis
Mr. and Mrs. Thad M. Allemand
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Arceneaux
Ms. Cynthia A. Aucoin
Mr. and Mrs. Ray B. Autrey
Dr. Michele R. Bailliet
Ms. Devon B. Bardin
Ms. Edith E. Barker
Ms. Cecilia Barrilleaux
Mr. and Mrs. Julien L. Barrilleaux
Mr. and Mrs. Larry A. Baudoin
Mrs. Holly H. Beaulieau
Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Becnel
FA L L 2 010 47
Honor Roll
Ms. Debra S. Benoit
Mr. Albert C. Besson
Ms. Marcelle R. Bienvenu
Mrs. Brenda Biondo
Mr. and Mrs. William B. Bisland Sr.
Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Blair
Blitch Knevel Architects Inc.
Ms. Vivian Bonamy
Ms. Louise Bonin
Ms. Barbara F. Bordelon
Mr. and Mrs. Jerry D. Bostic
Ms. Kathryn A. Boudreaux
Mr. and Mrs. Ray Boudreaux
Mr. and Mrs. Randy P. Bourgeois
Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd T. Bourgeois
Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Bouterie
Mr. and Mrs. James E. Braud
Mr. Joseph Brazan
Ms. Amy S. Breaux
Miss Loretta P. Brehm
Mr. Bennett A. and Dr. Carol Britt
Ms. Shirley Buckel
Ms. Mary Ann Bulla
Mr. Martin M. Butirich
Ms. Stephanie R. Caballero
Ms. Claudette C. Caldwell
Ms. Jo Alyce Carpenter
Dr. and Mrs. Christopher E. Cenac
Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth H. Chadwick
Ms. Lynne W. Chaisson
Mr. Joel J. Champagne
Mr. and Mrs. Glenn E. Chance Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Harvey M. Chauvin
Mrs. Ruth H. Chiasson
Dr. Carrie Chrisco
Mr. and Mrs. Darryl Christen
Mrs. Diana Clark
Mr. and Mrs. Brian P. Clausen
Mr. Mark P. Colligan
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony J. Collins
Ms. Raquel Cortina
Mr. and Mrs. Villere Cross
Ms. Judy A. Danos
Ms. Michele Dantin
Mr. and Mrs. Kevin B. Davis
Mr. John D. De La Bretonne II
Dr. and Mrs. John H. Dennis
Mr. and Ms. Sam Dragna Jr.
Ms. Bernadette D’Souza
Mr. Corey J. Dufrene
Mr. and Mrs. Rudy Dufrene Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Melvin B. Duplantis Sr.
Mr. and Mrs. Bill F. Durocher
Mr. and Mrs. John F. Exnicios Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Falgoust
Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. Faul
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Felger
48
FA L L 2 010
Dr. Joanne C. Ferriot
Mr. and Mrs. Rudy L. Foret
Ms. Renee K. Fortier
Drs. Nick and Elaine H. Fry
Dr. Patricia A. Gabilondo
Mr. Greg Gaubert
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Gautreaux
The Hon. and Mrs. Butch Gautreaux
Mr. Jacob Giardina Jr.
Ms. Margaret C. Giroir
Ms. Carrie M. Goodrow
Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Gremillion
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Grillot
Dr. Claudio Guillermo
Ms. Meca E. Guillot
Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Hammerli
Mr. and Mrs. T. Benton Harang
Mr. and Mrs. William G. Harvey
Ms. Casey L. Haynes
Henry Enterprises Inc. DBA Daniel’s Fast
Food Restaurant
Dr. and Mrs. O. Cleveland Hill
Mr. Whitney M. Hines
Mr. and Mrs. Donald A. Hingle II
Mr. Rodney R. Hodges
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond A. Hodson Jr.
Mrs. Diane Hollis
Mr. and Mrs. Octave P. Hymel Jr.
Ms. Jackie W. Jackson
Dr. Leslie Jones
Mr. and Ms. Michael C. Klaus
Dr. Betty A. Kleen
Mrs. Ethel N. Knobloch
Ms. Jackie Kocke
Ms. Jill E. Krzycki
Mr. and Mrs. Haden Lafaye
Mr. Daniel J. Lafont
Mr. and Mrs. Vic Lafont
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen L. Lambousy
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Lasseigne
Dr. and Mrs. Michael F. LeBlanc
Mr. Mark H. Lee
Mrs. Byrne E. Legendre
Dr. En Mao
Mr. and Mrs. Donald H. Marcello
Ms. Carol A. Mathias
Ms. Cora Lee M. Mc Millan
Ms. Christina E. Mendoza
Mr. Cruz G. Mendoza
Mr. Robert K. Meyer
Dr. and Mrs. David Middleton
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Montero
Ms. Marla V. Moore
Mr. and Mrs. Ryan L. Naquin
Mr. and Mrs. Craig J. Naquin
Mrs. and Mr. Regina P. O’Connell
Ms. Sally Orgeron
Mr. and Dr. Randy J. Papa
Ms. Lois H. Parker
Mr. and Mrs. Harvey A. Peltier III
Mr. and Ms. Vincent W. Peperone
Ms. Trina A. Peters
Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Piper
Ms. Maureen B. Pitre
Mr. and Mrs. Mark D. Plaisance
Ms. Jenna L. Portier
Mr. Dennie P. Prado
Ms. Caroland Randall
Ms. Patricia Rasberry
Ms. Jean Rice
Ms. Mary K. Ridenour
Mr. and Mrs. Gibbens Robichaux
Mr. and Mrs. Gregory P. Robichaux
Dr. and Mrs. William H. Robichaux
Mr. James and Dr. Paulette Rodrigue
Mrs. Mark J. Roy Jr.
Mr. Bruno J. Ruggiero
Ms. Donna M. Sammarco
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Scoggin
Mrs. and Mr. Gwen G. Sherburne
Ms. Cindy Sherwood
Mr. Kavin Sherwood
Ms. Judith Simmons
Dr. Andrew P. Simoncelli
Mrs. Wanda D. Smith
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Sposito
St. Matthew the Apostle School
Mr. and Mrs. Craig E. Stanga
Dr. James L. Stewart
Mr. and Mrs. Greg Stewart
Ms. Stephanie C. Swift
Ms. Gayle C. Tauzin
T–Caillou Lions Club
Ms. Michele D. Theriot
Mr. and Mrs. Troy W. Thompson Jr.
Mr. Michael J. and Dr. Joy B. Tingle
Mr. and Mrs. Jerome K. Toloudis
Ms. Anke Tonn
Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Toups
Mr. Daniel J. Toups
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel M. Trahan
Ms. Lizbeth A. Turner and Mr. Clarence
Wolbrette
Mr. and Mrs. James R. Van Sickle
Ms. Linda G. Verret
Ms. Martha D. Vicknair
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Watkins
Dr. J. Steven Welsh
Mr. and Mrs. Gerard A. White
Ms. Betty D. Williams
Ms. Jennifer D. Williams
Mrs. Anne Wilson
Mr. and Mrs. Richard B. Young
Voilà! The Magazine of Nicholls State University
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