The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), October 31, 2007 Wednesday
Copyright 2007 Post-Standard
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All Rights Reserved.
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. B1
INTENT OF THE AMBITIOUS DRIVE IS TO IMPROVE THE ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE.
BYLINE: By Sapna Kollali Staff writer
BODY:
Syracuse University will try to amass $1 billion over the next five years to provide more student financial aid, add endowed teaching positions, improve technology and increase community engagement.
SU leaders will officially announce the new fundraising campaign goal on Friday as part of a day-long celebration of Chancellor Nancy Cantor's slogan "scholarship in action."
The campaign goal is nearly three times the goal of the last campaign - a $370 million endeavor that ended in December 2000, said Campaign Director Brian Sischo, associate vice president of development.
"This is the most ambitious fundraising effort in the history of the university," said Thomas Walsh, senior vice president for institutional advancement. "We have a record level of personal commitments (to the campaign)."
SU has been raising money for the campaign since July 2005 in what is called the silent phase. Walsh said he will announce the amount raised so far on Friday, but he said colleges typically have 40 to 50 percent of their goal by the time the public phase is launched.
Billion-dollar campaigns are a growing trend among large colleges and universities, although they are still restricted to a small group of institutions, said Evan Goldstein, of The Chronicle of Higher Education. There are 29 active fundraising campaigns of $1 billion or more, according to Chronicle data, and 34 billion-dollar campaigns have been completed during the past two decades.
Ron Ehrenberg, economics professor at Cornell University, said it can be difficult to judge how much of a college's funds actually filter into the community, but there is an economic impact, more so in a place like Syracuse than in major metropolitan areas.
"You have to ask what would have happened to that money if it hadn't gone to the institution," he said. "In Syracuse, there's certainly a stronger argument that the university is bringing in dollars that wouldn't have come here otherwise."
The campaign's goals breakdown this way:
$300 million for interdisciplinary teaching, research and community engagement, with a focus on science and technology, social policy, community and economic development, public humanities, public communication and the arts.
$200 million for endowed faculty positions. Sischo said eight positions have already been endowed during the silent phase.
$75 million in annual support to use at the university's discretion.
$225 million for teaching and research facilities and technology on campus and at the university's off-campus locations.
$200 million will be used for student financial aid.
Ehrenberg said he is pleasantly surprised that none of the money is specifically earmarked for new buildings. He said, too, that an increasing number of colleges are using endowments and annual gifts as larger portions of their operating budgets.
"It's the only hope they have of keeping tuition down. Institutions have to get revenue from other sources," he said. "They seem to be focused on academic endeavors, and that's great."
Sapna Kollali can be reached at skollali@syracuse.com or 470-3257.
If you go...
What: Campaign kick-off and reception.
When: 5 p.m. Friday.
Where: Goldstein Auditorium, Schine Student Center.
Also: From 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., the university will hold small group discussion sessions. Advance registration is required. Visit insights
conversations.syr.edu for details.
Billion-dollar campaigns
Here are the U.S. educational institutions currently running campaigns of $1 billion or more.
Stanford University: $4.3 billion
Columbia University: $4 billion
Cornell University: $4 billion
University of Pennsylvania: $3.5 billion
Johns Hopkins University: $3.2 billion
University of Virginia: $3 billion
Yale University: $3 billion
New York University: $2.5 billion
University of Michigan: $2.5 billion
University of Washington: $2.5 billion
University of Illinois system: $2.25 billion
University of Chicago: $2 billion
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: $2 billion
University of Pittsburgh: $2 billion
Vanderbilt University: $1.75 billion
University of Florida: $1.5 billion
University of Notre Dame: $1.5 billion
Brown University: $1.4 billion
California Institute of Technology: $1.4 billion
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: $1.4 billion
Dartmouth College: $1.3 billion
University of Miami: $1.25 billion
Tufts University: $1.2 billion
Indiana University at Bloomington: $1 billion
North Carolina State University: $1 billion
University of Kentucky: $1 billion
University of Maryland at College Park: $1 billion
University of Missouri at Columbia: $1 billion
Virginia Tech: $1 billion
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
LOAD-DATE: November 1, 2007
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