More than 30 years ago, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word were praying for a miracle to save their small Catholic college from dwindling enrollment, deteriorating buildings and a bleak future.

Their prayers were answered — for better and for worse — with the arrival of a brash Brooklyn native named Louis Agnese Jr.

When Agnese took the helm of Incarnate Word College in 1985 at age 33, the young president proved to be the consummate salesman for the struggling school, which now is called the University of the Incarnate Word.

Not one to take no for an answer, Agnese made deal after deal with San Antonio business leaders.

He launched an ambitious marketing campaign, boosted fundraising to unprecedented levels and filled classrooms with thousands of new students.

“I'm really proud of my life and what I’ve done in San Antonio,” Agnese said last week, putting UIW in the same league as top religious schools such as Notre Dame, Brigham Young and Baylor.

“You ask any leader — (B.J. “Red”) McCombs, (Tom) Benson, any leader in San Antonio — and they’ll tell you the same thing: Lou Agnese’s been good for San Antonio and I’ve made a college that was nothing into the No. 1 faith-based university in the country.”

But after three decades, the outspoken savior of Incarnate Word no longer is welcome in some circles.

Long known for his colorful phrases called “Lou-isms,” Agnese, 65, upset students and faculty with public comments he made at an Aug. 15 luncheon for physical therapy students, according to an anonymous complaint sent by “very concerned students” to UIW officials.

Among the concerns: Agnese singled out an African-American student who wasn’t wearing the school colors of Cardinal red. “Well, you’re lucky you’re black so you are in a way wearing Cardinal black,” he reportedly told her.

Agnese went on to ask if there were any Native American students in the group, according to the complaint, and he said their “Indian-red skin color would also count as wearing Cardinal red.”

Agnese confirmed he made those comments and others — but denied they were offensive.

Others on campus disagreed. Faculty and staff at UIW’s School of Physical Therapy were “absolutely outraged” and “immediately called upon the administration to take action,” according to a campus source who requested anonymity because school officials have discouraged people from speaking with the media.

“The dean was in contact with senior university administration immediately following that lunch, and a meeting was called the next day to inform students of this, and to make it clear to them in no uncertain terms that this behavior was unacceptable and did not reflect what UIW stands for,” the source told the San Antonio Express-News.

The source said Agnese made inappropriate comments at other functions during that time frame, sparking other complaints that eventually made their way to UIW’s board of trustees.

On Aug. 18, board chairman Charles Lutz released a statement to the UIW community that was posted on the Facebook page of the university’s student newspaper, the Logos. Lutz announced that Agnese was taking 90 days of medical leave for “sporadic uncharacteristic behavior and comments.”

Lutz, president of Intercontinental Wealth Advisors, did not offer details but apologized to anyone who was offended.

Lutz released another statement Friday praising Agnese’s service but emphasizing his recent statements “cannot be condoned.” Lutz said the board will discuss the matter Monday.

Longtime supporters of “Lou,” as he’s affectionately known, don’t want to see things end this way for Agnese if his days are numbered at Incarnate Word.

While his slick, corporate-style of leadership didn’t please everyone, Agnese has many admirers who praise him for breathing life into a dying campus.

Enrollment at Incarnate Word grew nearly tenfold since his arrival in 1985, from 1,300 students to nearly 11,000. New academic buildings have sprouted up like the weeds that used to grow on the campus’ neglected roads.

“Lou came to San Antonio about the same time I did,” joked San Antonio auto magnate B.J. “Red” McCombs, one of the many donors who have been persuaded by Agnese over the years to open their checkbooks for Incarnate Word.

“He bought his first car from me the first day he came in,” McCombs said. “Of course, he came out of the trade better than I did. He usually does.”

McCombs said if Agnese is guilty of making a mistake, he hopes critics take into account everything he’s done for Incarnate Word.

“I hope everybody takes a deep breath and realizes that none of us are always pleasing to everyone else, look at the end results, and let’s keep going,” McCombs said. “I would hate to lose Lou.”

Crossing a line

Straight talk is nothing new for Lou.

“Never obscene but frequently profane, Agnese could drop a malapropism that would make Yogi Berra proud,” wrote Patricia Watkins, a retired UIW professor and administrator, who spent hours interviewing Agnese for her book “Lou: From Brooklyn to Broadway.”

“Over the years those became known as “Lou-isms,” Watkins wrote.

But at the Aug. 15 luncheon for physical therapy students, Agnese clearly crossed a line, according to the anonymous complaint sent to UIW.

“We’ve known for a long time that Dr. Agnese has a reputation for being blunt, eccentric, colorful, even abrasive,” stated the anonymous letter obtained by the Express-News. “But the statements made by him today were so egregiously over the top that I became viscerally sickened by them.”

It started with Agnese singling out the African-American student and then talking about Native Americans wearing Cardinal red because of their skin color.

From Agnese’s point of view, he was joking with students. Asked last week if he made those statements, Agnese chuckled and said: “Yeah, yeah,” but insisted they weren’t offensive.

At the luncheon, Agnese also reportedly quipped how Mormons were taking over the computer graphics and design school. And when he asked another student where he was from and the student answered “Dallas,” Agnese was quoted as saying, “No, where is your family originally from? You’re Indian, right?”

According to the complaint, Agnese made another student stand up, said she wasn’t good enough to get into any other program because of her poor test scores, and noted how lucky she was to be accepted to UIW.

Agnese told the Express-News he also praised the student for excelling at UIW. “Now she has the highest test score of anybody in the program,” Agnese said Thursday.

At another point, Agnese reportedly addressed a Hispanic faculty member by calling him by the wrong name. When the man corrected Agnese and said his name was Jaime, Agnese responded, “Well, close enough, you look like a José.”

The complaint goes on to say Agnese told the students off-color jokes about alcoholism, praised Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and denounced Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Whether Agnese’s racial comments were discriminatory could be an issue decided by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Education Department if any students complained. An agency spokesman said it doesn’t release information about any possible complaints it’s recently received.

Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center and a national expert on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, said it’s unclear whether Agnese violated federal law by bringing up a student’s poor test scores.

“FERPA really speaks about a pattern and practice of not maintaining your students’ records in a secure way and FERPA was not intended to be the one-off comment that somebody makes on a single occasion.” LoMonte said. “Was this the kind of information that FERPA exists to protect? Absolutely yes. Would the university actually suffer financial consequences for that president’s one remark? Absolutely not.”

The student whose test scores were mentioned in public could complain to Agnese’s superiors or consider another legal claim, such as invasion of privacy, LoMonte said.

Agnese said he suspects a faculty member, not a student, is behind the anonymous complaint. And he doubts it has anything to do with the board’s decision to place him on leave, which he said was made against his wishes. He insisted it had more to do with a different discrimination complaint against him.

“It was six faculty members who said I was reverse discriminating against white people, that I was promoting Hispanics and blacks over white people,” Agnese said.

A supportive board

What surprises one longtime professor at UIW is that the rift between Agnese and UIW’s board of trustees became public at all.

With a broad membership of civic leaders, nuns and business executives, the board always has supported Agnese — at least publicly.

“The board stepping in is certainly surprising,” said the professor, who didn’t have permission to speak to the media.

Agnese enjoys the largest compensation package of any major university president in San Antonio. Incarnate Word paid him nearly $860,000 in salary, bonus pay and other compensation, according to the school’s publicly available tax filings for the fiscal year June 1, 2013, through May 31, 2014.

That’s an increase of more than 20 percent from his total compensation package two years earlier of nearly $709,000.

Agnese lives for free in a presidential suite above a dormitory on campus named after him and Lionel Sosa, a San Antonio marketing expert who partnered with Agnese in the 1980s to launch the school’s first ambitious advertising campaign.

Incarnate Word’s tax returns also include a section on “Business transactions involving interested persons” that show the university at times does business with its board members.

For example, Charlie Amato, chairman and co-founder of insurance company Southwest Business Corp., served as chairman of UIW’s board from 2008 until December 2013. Incarnate Word paid his company more than $3 million in property and liability insurance costs during that time, according to UIW’s tax records, which, like most tax filings of nonprofits, are open to the public.

A spokesperson for Southwest Business Corp. said Amato wasn’t available for comment.

Amato’s successor as chairman was Lutz, who had joined Incarnate Word’s board in 2006. Lutz has not answered any questions from the media about his statement, saying Agnese’s interactions with some students, faculty and staff have “provoked considerable concern for his well-being.”

An angry Agnese initially threatened to “sue the pants off” Lutz for releasing the statement and Agnese demanded a retraction, saying there was nothing medically wrong with him. Agnese later backed off that threat.

Many students on campus at lunchtime Friday said they knew nothing of the situation beyond Lutz’s initial statement. School officials aren’t talking.

Andre Jones, 18, a freshman who’s African-American, said he heard Agnese had said some offensive and disrespectful things, but didn’t know specifics.

“I thought he was cool during the orientation,” Jones said. “I guess not.”

Although the controversy’s timing right after Jones moved into his first college dorm was startling, Jones said he was not re-thinking his choice to attend UIW.

“The professors are still cool,” Jones said.

Iman Wallace, also 18 and a freshman, said she does not hear much campus news because she’s a commuter student, but she heard about Agnese from Jones. She said she’s now learned that students should speak up when they feel discriminated against.

“You also feel a little more aware now,” Wallace said. “If you see something, say something.”

Students Ty Burson, 18, and Taylor Foss, 19, also did not know exactly what Agnese was accused of saying or doing, but said the university did the right thing by putting him on temporary leave.

“This is the kind of world we live in now,” Burson said. “You gotta watch what you say. It might not be insulting, but for some people, it could still rub them the wrong way.”

Burson said he helped Agnese carry a box to his car near the bookstore before classes started, and Foss said Agnese seemed friendly and likable at orientation.

“Agnese’s the life of this campus,” Foss said. “We hope he comes back.”

jtedesco@express-news.net