Originally published in The News-Star newspaper, June 25, 2006

After a brief detour to consider the first commencement and also the story of Harry Lemert, let's return to the path of how Ouachita Parish Junior College became part of LSU.

As you may recall, a solution to the lack of funds in 1933 was a contract making OPJC part of LSU. However, LSU canceled the contract shortly before the fall 1933 semester opened. A trip to see U.S. Sen. Huey Long resulted in one more year's operating budget for the college, and that fall, the academic year of 1933-34 commenced. The following spring, the class of 1934 graduated. Now the college was back to its original dilemma - no funds with which to operate.

Now we come to the story of Sen. James A. Noe and the college. The summer of 1934 could be described as "wild." During that time unemployment in the United States was 22 percent, the "Dust Bowl" was raging, Adolf Hitler became Fuhrer of Germany, John Dillinger was killed in Chicago and, closer to home, the infamous Bonnie and Clyde met their deaths just down the road from Monroe. Likewise it was wild in the Louisiana Legislature. Long was everywhere, sometimes speaking from the floor, sometimes shouting at the legislators and sometimes voting for them in their absence. The president pro-tem of the state Senate was Monroe's Noe.

We see from the newspapers of the time that Noe quickly showed his intentions to re-establish the contract with LSU. He introduced a bill to do just that and set off a firestorm of opposition - from state Superintendent of Education T.H. Harris to some of what are now our sister institutions and their towns to a bogus representative of a fictional junior college association. LSU seemed to support the move and Long appeared to be in favor but didn't openly take any sides. Ouachita Parish citizens and civic clubs supported the bill, and over time, opinion seemed to sway in favor of the measure. However, it didn't come down to a popular vote.

Noe, like T.O. Brown and C.C. Colvert, was an excellent champion for the early years of our college. He waited until he knew Long would be in New Orleans and Harris would be in Alexandria, then he contacted all the senators and explained how "Huey wants this bill passed." The bill passed.

Upon his return, Long asked, "What the hell took place here last night, Jimmie?" The bill now moved to the House of Representatives where, in spite of continued opposition, it passed by an overwhelming majority and was signed into law by Gov. O.K. Allen. In the ULM Special Collections stands the Noe desk and behind it a picture of Allen signing Noe's bill, Act 231. Noe said it was his proudest political accomplishment.

Thus we acquired a permanent budget and our second name - Northeast Center of Louisiana State University.

Have a great day at ULM!

Dr. John Knesel, ULM Professor