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The Endowed Chairs for Eminent Scholars program, in particular,
has yielded immense rewards for individual institutions and for
the State as a whole. This program, introduced in 1987, is
designed to enhance the recruitment and retention of
distinguished university faculty at institutions throughout
Louisiana. Through the 2000/2001 fiscal year, 196 chairs have
been funded at twenty institutions, and the program has generated
a total endowment (counting private match) of more than $320
million.
The Endowed Chairs for Eminent Scholars program is a highly
competitive program that pairs a 60% private-sector match with a
40% Board of Regents award to endow a chair to be filled by a
scholar of high renown and great ability. The Board endows chairs
in any discipline at two levels: $1 million total endowment
($600,000 match/$400,000 BoRSF) and $2 million total endowment
($1.2 million match/$800,000 BoRSF). A third level of endowment,
the Super Endowed Chair category, was established in 1999. This
fledgling program contributes to endowments of more than $2
million for chairs in six areas specified in Louisiana’s
master plan for economic development (Vision 2020) as of
particular significance to the State’s economy. These
targeted clusters are information technology, environmental
technology, food technology, biomedical technology, advanced
materials and micromanufacturing. To date, fifteen $2 million
endowments have been created through the BoRSF.
The competition established to determine endowment awards is
rigorous and extremely selective. A panel of out-of-state,
non-partisan experts reviews proposals on an annual basis, and
recommends for funding those most representative of and able to
achieve the goals of the program. Stringent rules governing the
selection of the faculty recipient ensure his or her excellence.
An endowed chair must be filled through a national search, and
the committee conducting the search must include at least one
individual recognized as an expert in the field of the chair, but
who is not affiliated with the institution, the private donor, or
the Board of Regents. While a chair recipient may be selected
from within the affected campus, this may only be done when a
national search has documented the national and/or international
eminence of the prospective chairholder.
While the national search guarantees the past reputation of the
chairholder, periodic peer reviews of the chairholder assure
continued accomplishment. Chairholders are held to standards of
performance, which require that they maintain a continuing record
of scholarly and creative endeavors, leadership activities,
exceptional teaching, attraction of high-quality students and
enhancement of the State’s economy. In addition to these
required activities, the Board is in the process of establishing
a Society of Eminent Scholars, in which all chairholders will
have membership. The Society, currently in its formative stages,
will be comprised of BoRSF Endowed Chair recipients, as well as
other exceptional scholars, researchers and teachers from
institutions across Louisiana. Once established, the Society is
expected to provide recognition and celebration of the laudatory
achievements of its members, as well as to act in an advisory
capacity to institutions for recruitment and evaluation of future
chairholders.
