The Campaign is making its mark

Tom Cogill

When it comes to reading, kids who fall behind often stay behind, says special education teacher Susan Thacker-Gwaltney. With the Jean Butcher Fellowship, which supports teachers who wish to pursue further study, she entered U.Va.'s Curry School of Education to explore new methods in reading instruction. She is putting her ideas to work in a Charlottesville classroom, and the results are rewarding. ³It's exciting to see good teaching push children across the threshold of literacy,² says Thacker-Gwaltney, here working with Semaje Smith.

Fund raising tops $1.25 billion

Staff Report

As of Dec. 31, U.Va. reaches the end of the fund-raising Campaign for the University officially begun five years ago, having surpassed the $1 billion goal at the end of last year. The campaign has topped $1.25 billion, and the gifts are still being counted. The totals will come out early next year.

At least 140,000 donors and alumni have responded to the campaign, which made the case for boosting financial resources as state support fell in the last decade. Now, the campaign's successes have given the University a foundation upon which to design its future, "to envision ways to build on what our donors have enabled us to accomplish," as President John T. Casteen III has put it.

"Raising more than a billion dollars in a campaign puts the University in very exclusive company, but it's important to recognize that the impact of this effort goes beyond dollars and cents. It has touched the people of the University in obvious and not-so-obvious ways," said Robert D. Sweeney, vice president for development.

Approximately two-thirds of the campaign total, or $860 million, goes to U.Va.'s 10 schools, most of which have raised more than their individual goals [see list page 2].

"Faculty salaries, financial aid for undergraduates, graduate fellowships, library and laboratory resources, information technology -- they have all been enhanced by gifts received in the campaign," Sweeney said. "Then there are the improvements to the University's facilities, from the new Law School and Darden School to the new stadium to the new research buildings for environmental sciences and medicine. Virtually every aspect of academic and extracurricular life at the University has been strengthened by the campaign."

Where the money's going

To give an example of how individuals are benefitting or will benefit from the campaign: 161 endowed professorships, 600 endowed scholarships and 116 endowed graduate fellowships have been created with committed gifts, pledges and deferred gifts.

In a major boost to Arts & Sciences, a dean's endowment for academic excellence has been established to finance special projects, among other uses.

The endowment is "invaluable to our students and faculty as they provide me with the means to direct funds to the neediest departments and programs and to those with the most outstanding opportunities," said Dean Melvyn P. Leffler.

Although the campaign's $1 billion goal has been surpassed, the fund-raising process is not really over. Many of the campaign's goals remain unmet, and other priorities have arisen since the campaign began its pre-kickoff phase in 1993.

"In a larger sense, the campaign has secured our position as one of the 20 or so institutions that will define higher education in the next generation," Sweeney said. "Now the question is, can we sustain and even accelerate the pace of philanthropy so we can fulfill our potential for unique preeminence among our peers?"