On Friday, June 9, the University received a check from the ExxonMobil Foundation for $890,853. The total was determined by ExxonMobil’s 2005 Educational Matching Gift Program. As part of the program, the ExxonMobil Foundation donates three dollars for every one dollar donated by ExxonMobil employees and retirees to a particular academic institution. Last year, ExxonMobil employees and retirees gave the University 304 individual donations totaling $298,825. After the three-to-one match, the amount of money donated to the University last year by ExxonMobil totaled $1.18 million. Scott Madere, public relations director for the LSU Foundation, said individual donors decide which academic areas their donations will benefit. “Pretty much every area of campus has been represented by the Matching Gift Program,” Madere said. Madere added that some departments, like business and petroleum engineering, frequently receive donations from ExxonMobil and its affiliates. ExxonMobil, a Texas-based corporation which earns a yearly revenue of more than $250 billion, frequently bestows educational grants to colleges and universities in Texas and Louisiana. For the fourth year in a row, LSU ranks among the top two academic institutions in the nation in money received from the Educational Matching Gifts Program. In November, 2005, LSU received a grant of $88,000 from the ExxonMobil Foundation. Other Louisiana institutions which have recently received grants from ExxonMobil include the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Loyola University New Orleans and Northwestern State University.
_____Contact Jacob Mayer at [email protected]