August 23, 2002
NICHOLLS STATE INSTALLS ENDOWED CHAIR AND PROFESSORSHIPS
THIBODAUX
– At the recent Faculty Institute, Nicholls State University
announced the selection of several eminent scholars to fill
an endowed chair and several endowed professorships.
To create the $1 million endowed chair and the $100,000 professorships,
Nicholls State raised 60 percent of the cost from private sources,
which makes the university eligible to receive a 40 percent
match from the Board of Regents Support Fund. Funds generated
from the endowments allow promising educators to conduct scholarly
research and help offset the costs associated with research,
faculty publications and library acquisitions.
“The most outstanding faculty we can assemble and outstanding
support from the community are vital to our success. These endowments
will allow Nicholls State to continue to attract the best faculty
possible to educate students from the Bayou Region and beyond,”
Ayo said.
Dr. Marsha Bennett of New Orleans, who joins the NSU faculty
this semester as an associate professor of Nursing, was named
the first recipient of the Terrebonne General Medical Center
Endowed Chair in Nursing and Allied Health. Bennett is a registered
nurse and a noted scholar in the treatment and research of infectious
diseases, particularly HIV, coordinating dozens of research
projects and trial studies during the past decade. Bennett came
to Nicholls from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences
Center, where she served as a psychiatric/mental health clinical
nurse specialist and research coordinator in the HIV Outpatient
Program.
The John C. Daigle Endowed Professorship in Free Enterprise
was awarded to Dr. Michael Chiasson of Thibodaux, an associate
professor of Accounting. Since joining the Nicholls State faculty
in 1994, Chiasson has been widely published in numerous academic
and practitioner journals. Along with pursuing his research
and teaching interests of taxes and environmental and behavioral
accounting, Chiasson also serves as director of the annual Free
Enterprise Week at Nicholls.
The Entergy Endowed Professorship in Information Systems was
awarded to Dr. Randy Ryker of Thibodaux, associate professor
of Computer Information Systems. A leader in his field, Ryker
has served as a principal or co-principal investigator on four
grant proposals that netted more than $275,000 for laboratory
equipment and research resources to enhance the Computer Information
Systems and the Graduate Studies in Business Administration
programs at Nicholls State University.
Professor of Finance Dr. Bruce McManis of Thibodaux was named as the recipient of the Gerald Gaston Endowed Professorship in Business Administration. As head of the Department of Economics and Finance since 1991, McManis has expanded the department’s course offerings and publication productivity, while serving as a financial consultant for public and private organizations and authoring periodic financial columns for local newspapers. His in-depth research on the use of the Internet by businesses to disseminate investment and financial information has been presented in many academic journals and at a variety of conferences and meetings nationwide.