Sept. 04, 2003
For Immediate Release
To: News Directors and News Editors
From: Veronika Brown, Coordinator of Media Relations, 342-5444

Officials from the University of Louisiana at Monroe today accepted matching funds in the amount of $40,000 from Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, Louisiana Commissioner of Higher Education. The check presentation was made for ULM's most recent Endowed Professorship funded as part of the Regents Eminent Scholar and Endowed Professorship program. The presentation came at an afternoon press conference held at 2:00 p.m. in the Media Room of ULM's University Library. Endowment funds were received in the name of Hood/DeFatta Professorship in Accounting.

Private donations establishing the professorship were made through
contributions of two ULM alumni couples, Ed and Betty Davis and John and Donna Echols. Ed Davis is a 1977 accounting graduate in the College of Business Administration and his wife Betty is a 1978 elementary education graduate in the College of Education and Human Development. John Echols is a 1980 accounting graduate in the College of Business Administration and his wife Donna is a 1981 marketing graduate in the College of Business Administration. Both couples are from the Houston area. Their combined donations of $60,000, which include matching donations from their employer, together with the $40,000 match today from the Board of Regents, will create the $100,000 Hood/DeFatta Professorship in Accounting.

"The funds received today will now enable the University to proceed in retaining and attracting the highest caliber of faculty to provide an excellent education for our students. ULM is grateful to these donors for making such a useful contribution to our University," said ULM President James Cofer.

Those being honored through the professorship are longtime University faculty. Dr. Hood was with ULM for 36 years and held the position of head of the accounting department for 34 years, the longest tenure as an accounting department head in the country. Hood was recently recognized as one of ULM's Outstanding Professors for the 2002-2003 school year. Dr. Joseph A. DeFatta was a faculty member at ULM in the College of Business for 28 years. He was an accounting professor until he retired in May 2003.

ULM now has nine $1 million Endowed Chairs, and a total of 44 Endowed Professorships.