UL Lafayette under Authement became an economic force within
Acadiana and gained national attention in the fields of computer science, environmental and biological research, and French studies. The
Carnegie Foundation designated UL Lafayette as a "research university with high research activity", comparable to
Baylor,
Clemson, and
Auburn universities. The Ray P. Authement College of Sciences at UL is named in his honor. UL Lafayette presents the Dr. Ray Authement Excellence in Teaching Award to a faculty member. In 2009, Authement was named the UL Lafayette president-emeritus; he still taught mathematics classes again at UL Lafayette after leaving the presidency of the institution.
Louis J. Michot, the Lafayette businessman who served in the
Louisiana House of Representatives from 1960 to 1964, ran for
governor of Louisiana in the 1963
Democratic primary election, and served as the state education superintendent from 1972 to 1976, described Authement, prior to retirement from ULL, accordingly: In spite of all the things he must have put up with in 30-something years, he's still there. ... In a political climate like Louisiana, he stayed head of a public institution for one-third of a century. He must have been doing something right. Former Governor Blanco said of Authement: He had great academic vision. He knew how to drive areas of excellence. And that takes a lot of fortitude. There's a lot of campus politics that goes on. He had to convince that faculty, and they understood and went along with his program that achieving areas of excellence would bring the university out of being a little country school with limited vision and limited education for its students and into the modern world. And they understood that and supported it. That's very hard to do. There are many campuses that have never been able to get that far down the road. In retirement, Authement and his wife resided in Lafayette. ==Death==