Alva Review-Courier -

In the past few weeks, our state's two largest newspapers have devoted coverage to a growing concern about the backlog in state funding for the endowed chairs program. This program was created in 1988 by the legislature to support the establishment of faculty chairs, professorships and lectureships at Oklahoma's public colleges and universities, including Northwestern Oklahoma State University. The overwhelming success of the program was a clear signal the public viewed higher education as a priority investment.

The premise of the program is to allow donors to establish qualifying endowments t...