Norman Christopher Francis (born March 20, 1931) is an American academic who served as president of Xavier University of Louisiana from 1968 to 2015.

[4][5] He has said that one reason that he was accepted was because he had been active in the National Federation of Catholic Colleges, where he became acquainted with several of the Jesuit fathers on the Loyola University faculty.

About that same time, Francis acted as counsel for the Xavier student body president, Rudolph Lombard, who had been arrested for attempting to integrate the lunch counter at McCrory's on Canal Street in New Orleans.

[2] In 1961, while dean of men, he played a key role in Xavier's decision to house the Freedom Riders, an integrated group testing application of the Supreme Court decision banning discrimination in interstate rail and bus travel, in a campus dormitory when they were flown to New Orleans by Federal Marshals after having been attacked in three Alabama cities (Anniston, Birmingham and Montgomery).

[citation needed] Because of his scholastic record, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the religious order which conducts Xavier University, offered him the post of dean of men, which he accepted.

Coincidentally, he accepted the presidency at Xavier on the same day, April 4, as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis.

At Xavier, Francis presided over a major expansion of campus facilities and enrollment growth of 35 percent.

On September 2, 2014, Francis announced his plan to retire from his post as Xavier's president in June 2015 after serving the university in this capacity for 47 years.

He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has received 35 honorary degrees, and was named among the 100 most effective college presidents in a poll published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

[7] On November 21, 2008, in New Orleans at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Francis celebrated his 40th year as President of Xavier University at the 40th Anniversary Gala, themed "Legacy for a Legend".

The thoroughfare, named for Jefferson Davis (the president of the Confederacy), was renamed to Norman C. Francis Parkway, effective January 1, 2021.