Backgrounder:

LSUS has two chairs, 11 professorships 09/03/03

With the receipt of matching funds from the Louisiana Board of Regents for one chair and two professorships, LSUS now has fully endowed two chairs, two super professorships and nine professorships. The university also has one privately endowed chair waiting for the state’s match and three partially endowed professorships. Total contributions received from donors and the Board of Regents for LSUS chairs and professorships is $3.7 million.

The two chairs, which are endowed at $1 million each, are:

• American Studies Chair. Dr. William D. Pederson, professor of political science and director of the LSUS International Lincoln Center, is the current chair designate.

• Ruth H. Noel Chair for the Curatorship of the James Smith Noel Collection. A national search will be under way soon to name a designate for this chair.

-- The Kilpatrick Life Insurance Company Chair of Insurance and Financial Services has been privately funded and is awaiting the state’s matching funds.

The two super professorships, which are endowed at $200,000 each, are:

• Oscar Cloyd Real Estate Professorship in the College of Business Administration. Dr. Douglas S. Bible, professor of finance and chair of the Department of Economics and Finance is the current professor designate.

• Kilpatrick Life Insurance Professorship in the College of Business Administration. Dr. Harvey W. Ruben, professor of finance is the current professor designate.

The nine professorships, each endowed at $100,000, are:

• India Studies Professorship. This professorship is currently unfilled..

• Elmer Simon Professorship for Excellence in Teaching – a universitywide professorship. Dr. Cynthia J. Sisson, associate professor of physics and chair of the Chemistry and Physics Department, is the current professor designate.

• George and Regina Khoury Professorship in the College of Sciences. This professorship is currently unfilled.

• George A. Khoury Jr. Professorship in American Humanics, College of Liberal Arts. Dr. Norman A. Dolch, professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Human Services and Public Policy, is the current professor designate.

• James K. Elrod Professorship in Health Care Administration, College of Liberal Arts. This professorship is currently unfilled.

• SWEPCO/CSW LaPREP Professorship in the College of Sciences. Dr. Carlos G. Spaht II, professor of mathematics, is the current professor designate.

• Dr. Richard K. Speairs Professorship in Field Biology, College of Sciences. Dr. James L. Ingold, professor of biological sciences, is the current professor designate.

• Don and Earlene Coleman Red River Watershed Management Institute Professorship in the College of Sciences. This professorship is currently unfilled.

• Sybil T. and J. Frederick Patten Professorship for Excellence in Teaching in the College of Liberal Arts. This professorship is currently unfilled.

The three partially funded professorships are:

• Joe and Abby Averett Professorship in Business.

• Jerry Boughton Professorship in the College of Business Administration.

• Wesson-Bridger Professorship in Teacher Education, College of Education.

The Louisiana Board of Regents is presenting $8.24 million in matching funds to public and private colleges and universities across the state over this two-week period. The funds will help create 10 new Endowed Chairs for Eminent Scholars and 84 new Endowed Professorships.

The state-funded portion of these new endowed chairs and professorships will match $11.38 million in private donations, under the state/private funding ratio provided for in the 1986 constitutional amendment establishing the Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund (LEQSF).

“These presentations are an excellent opportunity to highlight some the great successes in Louisiana postsecondary education in recent years,” Commissioner of Higher Education Joe Savoie said. “Two very significant success stories are the Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund and the generosity of a host of private citizens and corporations in this state who understand that investment in Louisiana’s colleges and universities is the best way to ensure our state’s long-term economic and social vitality.”

Since 1986, the Board of Regents has been able to award over $144 million in matching grants through the program, creating some 213 endowed chairs, including 18 $2 million chairs, and 1,263 endowed professorships. When matched with private contributions, the value of those chairs and professorships is almost $348 million.

Funding for the endowment matching funds program is generated through a permanent trust fund approved by voters in a 1986 constitutional amendment. The original $540 million payment was part of a settlement between the state and federal governments over disputed off-shore oil and gas royalty funds. By 2003, the trust fund (sometimes called the “(8g) money”) had risen to approximately $939 million. Twenty-five percent of the interest earned each year is reinvested in the fund. The Legislature appropriates half of the remaining interest to the Board of Regents for higher education and the other half to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for grades K-12.

“The LEQSF makes it much easier for Louisiana=s colleges and universities to attract new scholars and researchers,” Savoie said. “The fund also goes a long way toward stemming the much-publicized >brain drain= by providing the means for our institutions to retain eminent faculty members, who themselves attract high-quality graduate students.”

Additionally, the program helps create stronger economic development ties between the private sector and higher education. To create endowed chairs for eminent scholars and endowed professorships, colleges and universities must raise 60 percent of the cost from private sources. For example, to create an endowed chair for an eminent scholar, a college or university first must raise at least $600,000 from private contributions, which then makes them eligible to receive the Regents’ $400,000 match. The total value of the endowed chair is $1 million. Similar provisions apply to $2 million chairs. In the endowed professorship program, $60,000 must come from private sources to qualify for the Regents’ $40,000 match.