Shell Oil Company announced part of its plans to help rebuild Louisiana with a donation to the University.
The company donated $170,500 in a Jan. 27 ceremony in the Energy Coast and Environment Building.
The donation is to be divided among several of the University’s colleges and career-assistance programs.
Money will go to the E.J. Ourso College of Business, College of Engineering, College of Basic Sciences, Honors College, Career Counseling, Minority Engineering Program and the Applied Depositional Geosystems program in the Department of Geology and Geophysics.
Many deans of the colleges thanked the company for its generosity.
“I want to thank Shell for this great partnership we have going here,” said Robert Sumichrast, dean of the E.J. Ourso College of Business, upon receiving a check for the business school.
William Jenkins, LSU System president, said he wants to foster the relationship between Shell Oil Company and the University.
“It’s a great partnership that occurs between your company and our campus,” Jenkins said.
The company also assisted the University with two other projects this year. Shell helped with the opening of the Shell Coast Environmental Modeling Library in May 2005 and the opening of an art exhibit at the University’s Museum of Art titled “Vanishing Wetlands: Two Views.”
Jenkins said these relationships between companies and universities are important.
“In the future there are going to be more partnerships between universities and corporate America,” Jenkins said.
Greg Guidry, asset manager for the Eastern Gulf of Mexico section of Shell, said the company values its ties with the University. Guidry, who also sits on the advisory board of both the Honors College and the College of Engineering, said the University’s Flagship Agenda and success rate in attracting valuable employees are important to the success of the company.
Guidry said Shell currently employs 400 University graduates.
University graduates constitute the fourth-largest group of employees from a particular university at Shell, and they are the largest group of employees who come from an institution outside of Texas.
Shell has plants in Convent and Norco and a corporate office in New Orleans that has 1,000 employees.
Shell is celebrating its return to New Orleans today on the steps of One Shell Square and nearby Lafayette Square.
 
Contact Justin Fritscher at [email protected]