The Charles Koch Foundation is awarding a $5.6 million grant—paid over five years—to the LSU E.J. Ourso College of Business to support the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute and expand entrepreneurship programs and research.
The grant will fund the hiring of an institute research director and additional faculty, says Richard White Jr., dean of the business school, who made the announcement today at the business college. It will also support academic research on barriers to entrepreneurship in Louisiana and the Baton Rouge region, along with expanded educational opportunities for students and outreach programs, including conference and workshops.
This marks the first time the business college will use donor funds to support faculty positions, White said, as universities and colleges have faced state budget cuts over the years.
“We’re setting a new financial model for the rest of the university,” White says. “In many ways, we’ll have to stand on our own through financial need.”
John Hardin, director of university relations at the Koch Foundation, praised the business school and its entrepreneurship program for supporting innovation and reaching out to students across campus, from all majors, to get involved in entrepreneurship. He also applauded plans to research the obstacles local entrepreneur face.
“Entrepreneurship is at root of innovation, of improvement, at the root of making people’s lives better,” Hardin says. “These are the skills and the mindset that every student should learn.”
This fall, the E.J. Ourso College of Business began offering a bachelor of science in entrepreneurship degree through the college’s Stephenson Department of Entrepreneurship & Information Systems. Students of all disciplines can take advantage of the new degree, as well as the Entrepreneurship Fellows Program, an entrepreneurship minor or elective courses.
Also attending the announcement were LSU President F. King Alexander and LSU alumnus and entrepreneur Emmet Stephenson.
The Koch Foundation grant is the latest in a string of million-dollar gifts supporting entrepreneurship at the LSU business college. Emmet and Toni Stephenson donated $6 million in 2016 to the college and $4 million in 2007 to the entrepreneurship institute, which was then renamed the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute. In addition, the university made an annual commitment of $550,000 for faculty pay.
“Through this new grant from the Charles Koch Foundation, the university’s existing commitment and the generosity of the Stephenson family, funding for entrepreneurship programs at LSU exceeds $12 million,” Alexander said in a statement. “This demonstrates the commitment of both the university and supporters toward leveraging the leadership of our students, faculty and alumni, who offer creative and innovative solutions that catalyze economic development and shape the economy of tomorrow.”
—Annie Ourso Landry
