SLS 15RS-2527 ORIGINAL
2015 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 154
BY SENATOR MURRAY
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Dr. Norman Francis on his service as president of Xavier
University of Louisiana.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To commend Dr. Norman Francis on his many years of outstanding service and dedication
3 to Xavier University of Louisiana.
4 WHEREAS, Dr. Norman Francis was born on March 20, 1931, in Lafayette,
5 Louisiana, the son of poor parents, neither of whom finished high school; and
6 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis started out in life as poor and underprivileged, but, as he
7 said later, he did not know that he was poor and underprivileged; and
8 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis is the president of Xavier University of Louisiana, a position
9 he has held since 1968; and
10 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis accepted the presidency at Xavier University on the very
11 day that the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in
12 1968; and
13 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis has been Xavier University's second longest-tenured current
14 leader of an American college or university and the only lay president of Xavier University;
15 and
16 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis was named among the one hundred most effective college
17 presidents in a poll published in the Chronicle of Higher Education; and
18 WHEREAS, he also has served as the president of the American Association of
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SLS 15RS-2527 ORIGINAL
1 Higher Education and the United Negro Fund; and
2 WHEREAS, he has been awarded honorary degrees by thirty-five colleges and
3 universities and was invested as a Knight of Malta in 1991; and
4 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis has served as chairman of the board of directors of the
5 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and Educational Testing Service, the Carnegie
6 Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Southern Education Foundation; and
7 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
8 a member of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, the National Advisory
9 Research Council of the United States Department of Health and Human Resources, and the
10 National Assessment of Higher Education Program; and
11 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
12 December 2006; and
13 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis has provided Xavier University of Louisiana with dedicated
14 service, resulting in the educational growth and development of many Louisiana students;
15 and
16 WHEREAS, he guided Xavier University's growth in both size and dimension during
17 his tenure as president; and
18 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis has not only dedicated his life to shaping and bettering the
19 lives of thousands of college students, but has also touched the lives of those who have been
20 privileged to learn from, work with, and know him; and
21 WHEREAS, Dr. Francis announced his plan to retire from his post as Xavier
22 University's president in June 2015 after serving the university in this capacity for 47 years.
23 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
24 does hereby commend Dr. Norman Francis on his many years of service as president of
25 Xavier University of Louisiana.
26 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to Dr.
27 Norman Francis.
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SLS 15RS-2527 ORIGINAL
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Angela L. De Jean.
DIGEST
SR 154 Original 2015 Regular Session Murray
Commends Dr. Norman Francis on his service as president of Xavier University.
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