The Board of Regents approved a measure creating an Energy Law Center at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Wednesday’s meeting. The center gives students an opportunity to earn a Juris Doctorate or a Master of Laws degree in energy, and will be made possible by a $600,000 private donation in addition to $400,000 in state funds. In three years, the program should be completely phased in, according to Law Center Chancellor Jack Weiss. Weiss said the center will directly correlate with the state’s energy economy. In addition, the board failed to take action on a shortage of 348 endowed professorships. During the Sponsored Programs Committee, the board’s Support Fund Planning Committee presented two plans to gradually fill endowed professorships – a program created in 1990 to help recruit top-notch faculty and retain outstanding faculty. A major purpose of the Endowed Professorships Program is to create stronger economic development ties between the private sector and higher education, according to the Board of Regents’ website. The state has not allocated any money toward the program in the past four years. However, the board projected an increase in state allocations. One plan would fill all endowed professorships around the state by the 2017-2018 academic year but leave the University with 147 unfilled slots. Those slots would slowly be filled by Support Fund dollars. The second plan encourages each of the 20 affected campuses to submit an idea for the program. Board Member Charlotte Bollinger expressed her opinion on the struggling program at the meeting. “In the business world, you often get rewarded when you do a good job,” Bollinger said. “There is obviously a trend when the state hasn’t matched the funds in four years… Maybe it is time to forget about the state matching professorships.” The room filled with silence when Committee Chairman Harold Stokes asked for a motion to approve the plans. Even after Stokes motioned to approve, no one responded with a second, leaving the future of the endowed professorship program in question. “So that’s it, it’s dead?” he asked. Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell responded adamantly. “Yes, let’s move on.” ____ Contact Joshua Bergeron at [email protected]