Capital campaign passes midpoint

The University's five-year, $1 billion capital campaign zoomed past its halfway point this summer, topping $517 million by the end of August. Donations during the summer months alone - which Vice President for Development Rick Nahm said are typically slow - reached $35 million, helping push the campaign three months ahead of schedule. The fund drive has raised 86 of the targeted 150 endowed professorships, and $15 million of a $35 million goal for "minority permanence." Officials have set aside money for specific programs such as graduate fellowships, program grants, and faculty support plans, all designed to increase minority support and retention at the University. Stanford University, which unseated this University as having the highest campaign goal, launched its $1.1 billion campaign in 1988. It has not alloted resources specifically for minority programs, according to Nahm. Nahm attributed the campaign's success to the collection of pledges that had been worked on previously, to the efforts by deans and the development staff, and to the University's Peak Week 250th anniversary celebration, which he said helped raise spirit and excitement. But he said it is too soon to consider whether the University should up the ante. "It will be another two years before there's any more discussion about looking at the goal," Nahm said. "We're running on track, but not drastically beyond what we planned." He said he is cautious, anticipating that the national economy and the "natural lull in the middle of the campaign" will slow the campaign's growth. He added that donations are more difficult to secure in the second half of the campaign. In the "nucleus fund" and in the first official year of the campaign, fundraisers approached alumni, University Trustees and corporations who have close ties to the University. Fundraisers will now approach those with weaker affiliations with the University. "The farther away people are, both emotionally and geographically, the less likely they are to make gifts," Nahm said. The campaign has secured about 75,000 gifts. About 125 donors have made gifts of $1 million or more, and over 1250 donors have made gifts of $25,000 or more. The vast majority of gifts are earmarked for such purposes as scholarships, research, library resources and buildings. Only about $29 million of the donations are unrestricted, and most of this amount, from annual giving, will go into the operating budget.

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