A successful weekend

After much anticipation, the secret's out. On Saturday night, Amy Gutmann announced that Penn's goal for the five-year capital campaign will be $3.5 billion. Gutmann also announced that Penn had already raised a whopping $1.6 billion in the quiet phase of the campaign - 43 percent of the target number.

Given the University's successful fundraising over the past two years, the $3.5 billion figure may seem a bit low. But Penn didn't have to break any records with their capital campaign (Stanford holds it with $4.3 billion, in case you're interested).

The planned development of the postal lands is estimated to cost between $850 million and $900 million, which means Penn raised more than enough money to finance the project in the quiet phase alone. The rest of the funds from the campaign will go to the endowment, financial aid and other programs in need of increased financing.

$3.5 billion may be safe, but it's also attainable. When the University hopefully meets and exceeds that goal, it's something everyone in the Penn community can be proud of.

So congratulations to the University on a successful weekend (minus the football). Penn reported great fundraising numbers thus far, revealed a reasonable goal and threw a great party. We hope the rest of the campaign runs as smoothly.

Editorial | Follow Up

Last Friday we criticized the administration for doing what we thought was a poor job of advertising the "Celebration on the Green." We boldly predicted that very few students would bother to show up.

We couldn't have been more wrong. College Green was packed Saturday night. The food was great, the drinks were free and the attendees had fun. In this case, we're happy to admit we missed the mark.

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