Lawson Swearingen

Lawson Lewis Swearingen, Jr. (born May 27, 1944), is a former Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate, having represented District 34 (Ouachita Parish) from 1980 to 1991, and a former president of the University of Louisiana at Monroe, whose tenure extended from 1991 to 2001.

Early life

Swearingen was born in San Antonio, Texas, to Lawson Swearingen Sr. (born 1919) and the former Jean Christine Cadwallader (born 1922). He was raised in Ruston in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, where he was graduated in 1962 from Ruston High School. He did not attend Louisiana Tech University in Ruston but instead received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966 in the field of government from ULM, known at the time as Northeast Louisiana State College. He also excelled in college basketball under the popular coach Lenny Fant. In 1969, he received his Juris Doctor degree from Tulane University in New Orleans. He then practiced law for 22 years in Monroe while he also served as a state senator.

Career

Louisiana State Senate

Swearingen was elected to the Senate in 1979 to succeed Democrat H. Lawrence Gibbs Jr. (1919-1993). In his third and last election to the state senate in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 24, 1987, Swearingen easily defeated fellow Democrat Fred Huenefeld Jr., also of Monroe, 26,087 (77.6 percent) to 7,521 (22.4 percent).

Swearingen voted in 1990 to sustain the veto of then Democratic Governor Buddy Roemer of a strict anti-abortion bill authored by State Representative Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge. Earlier, Swearingen had voted for passage of the measure, but he stood with Roemer, rather than Jenkins, in the showdown over the veto. Swearingen said that his original support for the measure had been with the expectation that the bill would have been amended in a conference committee to include exceptions for impregnations through [...] or incest, which were omitted from the final bill. Jenkins worked frantically to find three state senators to change their votes, but as Swearingen correctly predicted, "I don't believe they'll get the three votes."

ULM President

In 1991, Swearingen resigned with less than a year remaining in his senate term to become only the fourth president of the then Northeast Louisiana University, which was renamed ULM in 1999 during his presidential tenure. Apparently, alumni were disappointed with the name change, and opposition to Swearingen's administration advanced at a rapid rate. One of Swearingen's university assistants, vice president for external affairs Richard L. Baxter, even filed a defamation suit against John L. Scott, a former ULM Professor found to have materials accusing Swearingen of administrative mismanagement, on a website called truthatulm.com.

Upon his resignation from the Senate in 1991 to become the ULM president, Swearingen was briefly succeeded by former State Representative John C. Ensminger (born 1934), a conservative Democrat who had switched to Republican affiliation while serving in the House in 1985.

Under Swearingen, the university added four doctoral degree programs, expanded the pharmacy program, built new library and computer science buildings, and expanded Biedenharn Hall. Certain selective admissions procedures were also implemented. There was a "no opinion" audit finding of the institution in 2000. Swearingen retired as president in 1991. He remained thereafter on paid leave until August 15, 2002. Prior to his resignation, Swearingen missed a deadline to raise $500,000 to repay the ULM athletic scholarship foundation for funds borrowed to finance the entry of the institution into Division I-A of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Personal life

Swearingen has also lived in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, and Fairhope in Baldwin County near Mobile, Alabama. He is now a professor of management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish. He is an ACTIVE community leader in Hammond and often lectures on education topics. A Baptist as well as a member of Gideons International, Swearingen is a trustee serving a term through 2011 on the board of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

He is married to the former Sharon Harrelson (born 1947), originally a ULM cheerleader from West Monroe. Swearingen's parents, who reside in Shreveport, were active donors in 2008 to the Republican Party.