The Chris Williams File

[DeadRed]

_ I hear Jerry Bladwin is scheduled as a guest lecturer.

Seriously though, I am not at all pleased with the hiring of Dr. Savoi and now the appointment of Jerry "Luke" LeBlanc. The whole thing reeks of political back door dealing. I hope I am wrong. _

Ditto Cajunproud.

Has J. Luke no shame. He is head of the State Medical Review Panel in refineryville.(ie government job) The Crony zzzzzzzz are out of power in refineryville and he of course loses that government job -- so to the rescue is T-Joe with yet another government job.

When do these guys ever quit nursing at the public breast?

[Cajunrunner]

When do these guys ever quit nursing at the public breast?

Aww..now your asking too much. You want them to be like the rest of us, work 40 years and not have a cushy retirement package funded by the taxpayers.

[JamesTheJeweler]

He is eligible to be fired just as quick as he was hired.

oh great! getting rid of him should be 'interesting'

[Hammer58]

_ oh great! getting rid of him should be 'interesting' _

Think he has Karl Bernard's number on speed dial? Imagine the summation "Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, if UL had not fired Dr Williams and ruined his reputation he would be president of Harvard University by now."

[gorcajun]

Is there still professor evaluations at the end of the semester?

[ULtimateCajun]

_ Is there still professor evaluations at the end of the semester? _

There certainly are. The only bad thing is that most students just fill them out as fast as possible to without even reading them to get out of class, pretty much giving the teacher/professor a passing grade.

[NewsCopy]

  Former Lafayette Consolidated Council member Chris Williams will teach introductory political science classes at UL this spring.

The job is a temporary emergency instructor position created only for the spring semester to help the political science department through a transition of new department heads, said Julie Dronet, UL spokeswoman.

"We needed an instructor to cover some classes due to the upcoming retirement of Janet Frantz," said Dronet.

Williams will help cover classes for Frantz and UL political science professor, Pearson Cross, who will become department head in the summer, Dronet said.

Frantz has been acting department head since former head Donn Kurtz took a leave of absence in fall 2006. In November 2006, one of Kurtz's former students filed a sexual harassment suit against him.

Dronet said the instructor position wasn't advertised.

"We don't have to advertise for emergency temporaries," she said. "Those are designed to cover classes when something happens."

Williams holds a Ph.D. in public policy analysis and education leadership from Union Institute and University. The university is based in Cincinnati and offers distance learning programs and is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission. He received his master's degree in political science from Southern University.

Dronet was unable to release Williams' salary late Wednesday afternoon, but said the range for emergency temporary faculty in the college of liberal arts would be $32,000 to $34,000 annually or $16,000 to $17,000 per semester.

Williams previously taught political science at UL one summer semester.

Williams' most recent position was with the Louisiana Community and Technical College System office in Baton Rouge as its corporate training director. Prior to that he had served as the regional director of the system's Acadiana district.

Williams had worked for UL in high school relations before being hired as assistant director for community and governmental relations at UL.

Williams also served three terms on the Lafayette Consolidated Council.

Williams was unable to be reached for comment.

The rest of the story

Marsha Sills
msills@theadvertiser.com

[rhineaux]

_ There certainly are. The only bad thing is that most students just fill them out as fast as possible to without even reading them to get out of class, pretty much giving the teacher/professor a passing grade. _

Especially at that level when the classes are filled mostly with Freshmen.

[ULtimateCajun]

The job is a temporary emergency instructor position created only for the spring semester to help the political science department through a transition of new department heads, said Julie Dronet, UL spokeswoman.

I hadn't seen that it was just an emergency one time deal but still. They couldn't bring somebody out of retirement or something maybe a grad student. That makes me feel a little bit better to see that it is just for one semester

[NewsCopy]

Chris Williams has not slowed down a bit since leaving the Lafayette City-Parish Council in early 2008. In fact, Williams is working harder than ever: He works full-time for the Department of Special Services at UL Lafayette, where he also teaches a political science class at night each semester.

He also spends extended hours during the week helping out at the family restaurant business, Country Cuisine on University Avenue, and — quite remarkably — puts in another 40 hours a week as a case manager for the federal Disaster Housing Assistance Program, a contract he has held since late 2007 with the Lafayette Housing Authority.

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