Former Louisiana Tech Vice President for Student Advancement Dr. Jim King has a brand new title: Vice President Emeritus.
King obtained the shock recognition and a framed proclamation at a small luncheon in his honor final Friday within the Chris Richardson Family Suite Level of Joe Aillet Stadium.
He joked Monday that “emeritus” is Latin for “has been.” But that’s hardly the case. Even as he mentioned it, King was in his Jeep on the positioning of the University’s latest housing challenge, south of the railroad tracks and west of Tech Drive, scheduled to open to Fall Quarter college students Friday.
Although he retired from his full-time place at Louisiana Tech two years in the past, King has nonetheless been working half-time, serving to to finish initiatives throughout campus that started on his watch, together with on-going housing initiatives, re-doing the campus core, updating Centennial Plaza, and “ending out another little initiatives throughout the campus,” he mentioned. “We’ve acquired greater than a half-dozen various things. I began it and I needed to see it via.”
Because of Hurricane Ida, the brand new housing challenge gained’t be utterly completed Friday; work will likely be on-going on the outside, however the inside will likely be full and protected for college kids, regardless of extraordinary challenges.
“I suppose we may sum it up,” King mentioned, ever the fast wit, “by saying by no means try and construct a 400-bed residential challenge throughout a pandemic, two hurricanes, and two tornados. Oh, and a snowstorm.”
King earned his first paycheck from Tech when he got here to the University in August 1981 as a sophomore and was employed as a pupil employee within the housing division. After finishing his graduate work, he was employed full-time by housing, then grew to become Vice President of Student Affairs on the flip of the century.
“I discovered a house right here,” he mentioned. “I’ve had a whole lot of titles; I suppose they had been all the time determining what I may do. ‘Well, that didn’t work out, so let’s see if he can do that.’”
The days of three guys to a dorm room with no air-conditioning and King as an RA are lengthy gone, as evidenced by new apartment-style, courtyard housing developments and enhancements campus-wide. Corporate partnerships with organizations like Barnes & Noble, Chick-Fil-A, and McAlister’s have additionally given college students new procuring and eating choices.
King mentioned he was “humbled and shocked” on the luncheon hosted by his boss and University President Dr. Les Guice, and he praised his “tremendous employees” and proficient colleagues he’s labored with via the years, previous and current. Two of these colleagues, former Tech VPs Corre Stegall and Jean Hall, who employed King as a pupil in 1981, had been amongst these honoring their longtime pal Thursday.
Also current had been King’s spouse Lori, their daughter Abbie, and her fiancé Seth Gordon. (The couple’s different youngster, son Collin, was in Denver.)
“I knew once I stepped again quietly a few years in the past, I needed to stay engaged,” mentioned King, who for the foreseeable future will doubtless proceed to be seen on campus the place enhancements are being made. “I’m all the time prepared to help the University any manner I can.”
