UL received $840,000 in matching funds from the Board of Regents Support Fund on Tuesday to complete 21 new endowed professorships for the university.

The professorships help build the "core" of the institution - its faculty, said Joseph Savoie, state commissioner of higher education.

"These investments go to the core of institutional quality. ... You are making an investment in your own future, your children's future and the future of your community," Savoie told those donors who attended the ceremony.

The 21 new endowed professorships now gives UL 246 professorships that are used to attract faculty to the university. The Board of Regents Support Fund is a matching funds program created in 1986 with the $540 million settlement from the federal government over disputed oil and gas royalties.

The fund now nearly has $1 billion, according to Savoie.

Of the 246 professorships, 106 are vacant.

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Marsha Sills
msills@theadvertiser.com