Our Lady of the Lake College has embraced a new name to reflect its university status and to bring awareness to its advanced degree offerings, while at the same time honoring the ministry’s founding sponsors and its Catholic Franciscan values.
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University will be the new name of the college, which is the only Catholic Franciscan higher education institution in the southeastern U.S.
Full implementation of the name will be complete by 2017, Sister Barbara Arceneaux announced today in a release. Arceneaux is provincial for the Sisters of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, who established the initial school of nursing in 1923.
“There are a number of reasons why we are excited to announce a new name that recognizes our institutional maturity … our university status,” says President Tina Holland in a statement. “But I am most excited about the opportunity to declare the proud heritage entrusted to us by our Sisters, the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady. Our new name is a clear reflection of our commitment to enhance our Franciscan identity.”
In achieving university status, OLOL College has expanded degree programs to include master’s and doctoral degrees and comprises three established schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Health Professions and Our Lady of the Lake School of Nursing.
The university enrolls 1,600 students, has 76 full-time faculty members and welcomes all faiths and backgrounds. It was initially founded as a nursing school in conjunction with Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium in the downtown Capitol Lake area. Today the university, now located near OLOL Regional Medical Center on Essen Lane, has grown to offer a range of programs while maintaining a focus on health care.
Degree programs outside of nursing include radiologic technology, respiratory therapy, health service administration and more. The university also plans to develop future programs in nutrition, professional communications and business.
“Academics has been a growing component of our organization, and the perpetual learning environment maximizes the positive impact we have on individuals and the greater community,” says Scott Wester, CEO of OLOL Regional Medical Center.
A cornerstone of the curriculum is the nationally recognized service-learning program, named seven times to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. Since 2012, OLOL College has earned the enhanced “With Distinction” honor, bestowed on only 120 colleges or universities in the nation and the only one in Louisiana.
Holland says the new name does not change the institution’s historic relationship with OLOL Medical Center and the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System.
“By highlighting our university status and our Franciscan identity, we believe we are better positioned to serve and support the sisters’ health care ministry within the many higher education alternatives,” Holland says. “An important impetus for the new name is that the first cohort of students will graduate with Doctor of Nursing Practice-Nurse Anesthesia (DNP) degrees in December 2017.”
—Annie Ourso
