AUSTIN, Texas—Donors to The University of Texas at Austin have created a $1 million endowment in honor of the university’s president, Dr. Larry R. Faulkner.
Earnings from the Larry R. Faulkner Endowed Presidential Excellence Fund will be used by Faulkner and subsequent presidents as a discretionary fund for programs and other critical needs of the university.
“President Faulkner is one of the main reasons that people have such strong faith in The University of Texas at Austin,” said Frank Denius, a member of the Capital Campaign Executive Council. “He embodies the core values of this university — leadership, vision and integrity.
“For these reasons, a number of us closely associated with the university decided to honor him in a very special way with this endowment.”
Faulkner called the gift “a sign of personal support and friendship. I am deeply appreciative of the people who put this together.”
Randa Safady, associate vice president for resource development, said, "Close friends of the university felt that creating an excellence endowment in Dr. Faulkner’s honor needed to go hand in hand with the announcement of the $1 billion milestone. It was, after all, his extraordinary leadership that inspired much of the private support in recent years to The University of Texas at Austin.”
The endowment, announced March 1 at a dinner marking the $1 billion milestone in the university’s capital campaign, was suggested by longtime University of Texas at Austin benefactor and former regents chairman Jack Blanton. A number of University of Texas at Austin supporters contributed to it.
