With
the announcement
in December 1999 of an astounding $60 million contribution from
Frank Batten Sr. (Col '50) to the Darden School, the Campaign
for the University, one of the most ambitious fund-raising efforts
ever undertaken by a public institution, reached its $1 billion
target more than a year ahead of schedule. The success of the
campaign has given the University the confidence to boldly plan
the University's future and to envision ways to build on what
our donors have enabled us to accomplish.
| |
Lincoln
Perry, one of the nation's foremost figure painters, produced
a nine-panel mural, called "The Student's Progress,"
which was installed this summer in Cabell Hall's lobby. The
mural traces one student's progress through the University.
Commissioned to celebrate the centennial of Old Cabel Hall,
the work was made possible by a series of gifts from supporters
of the arts at the University. |
|
|
What
is most remarkable about the campaign is the sheer magnitude
of the gifts the University has received this year. These
gifts are making a dramatic impact on a score of programs,
transforming local areas of excellence into centers of global
preeminence. They also have a broad effect across the entire
University, freeing up resources and space for faculty across
the disciplines and ensuring that the University retains
the broad knowledge base needed to fuel innovation.
The
Batten gift–the largest single contribution in the
University's history–provides an example of this: funds
are earmarked for five endowed professorships, a 75 percent
increase in endowed scholarship support, a fellows program
to bring corporate executives to the Darden School, and
a venture capital fund for students and faculty.
|
Rankings
Put U.Va. on Top in Quality and Value
The most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings
restored the University to its place as the nation's
best public university, tying with the University
of California at Berkeley. The University of Virginia
is ranked twentieth among all national universities,
public and private. On last year's list, U.Va. was
twenty-second, two places below Berkeley.
As might be expected, many of the University's individual
schools, departments, and programs did well in U.S.
News surveys. This year, the School of Law and
the McIntire School of Commerce ranked eighth in the
nation, while the Darden School ranked eleventh. Business
Week, in its annual survey, placed Darden ninth,
up two spots from last year's review.
The University's strong academic record is one reason
that it is widely recognized as a good value for students
and their parents. This year, Kiplinger's Magazine
ranked the University second among public colleges
and universities in an analysis that combined quality,
cost, and financial aid, while U.S. News & World
Report placed the University in a first-place
tie with the University of Texas for best value among
public schools. |
|
-
Other recent contributors to the Darden School include alumni
Lawton W. Fitt (Darden '79), E. Thayer Bigelow (Darden '67),
and Charles G. Duffy (Darden '87), each of whom has committed
$1 million in unrestricted funds to Darden. During Reunions
Weekend in June, Internet businessman U. Bertram Ellis Jr. (Col.
'75, Darden '79) and his wife, Deborah Hicks Ellis, announced
a pledge of $10 million to be divided equally between the Darden
School and the College of Arts and Sciences. Last year, Ellis
was a chief architect of e-summit@virginia.
-
Halsey M. Minor (Col '87), founder and chairman of CNET Inc.,
gave an unprecedented $25 million to arts and sciences to integrate
digital technology with the humanities and social sciences in
ways that promise to redefine a liberal arts education in the
Internet Age. University President John T. Casteen III called
Minor's gift extraordinary in its foresight. "His creative
thinking and generosity will help us to infuse new ways of teaching
and learning into our classrooms and our libraries so that we
can play a key role in transforming higher education more broadly
through innovative uses of digital technology."
-
Another gift that will elevate an already strong program
to international eminence is the $20 million bequest
for prostate cancer research from the estate of Paul
Mellon. This is the largest gift in the history of
the School of Medicine and the fourth largest for
the University.
-
The Mellon estate also has provided the University
Library with items from Paul Mellon's extensive collection
of rare books and manuscripts, including Thomas Jefferson's
most famous letter on the subject of slavery. "We
have the wolf by the ear," wrote Jefferson in
the 1820 letter on the Missouri Compromise, "and
we can neither hold him nor safely let him go."
-
The McIntire School of Commerce received a $7.3 million
gift of real-time financial data and information services
from Bridge Information Systems. This award, the largest
ever received by the school, will equip sixty-two
financial workstations and allow students and faculty
to develop portfolios, build financial models, and
test ideas.
-
In arts and sciences, Frank H. Levinson (Grad '78,
'80) and his wife, Wynnette, are giving $10 million
over the next ten years to the astronomy department
to help fund laboratory instrumentation, teaching
initiatives, and fellowships. This will move the department
toward its long-term goal of joining a major telescope
consortium
|
|
-
Paul Tudor Jones II (Col '76) of Greenwich, Conn., founder of
Tudor Investment Corp., has made a $10 million challenge gift
for construction of a new research wing for Clark Hall, home
of the Department of Environmental Sciences. The gift challenges
the University to raise an additional $10 million for the department,
including funds for endowed professorships, scholarships, fellowships,
and field and laboratory equipment.
-
The department also will be strengthened by the creation
of the Anheuser-Busch Coastal Research Center, established
by a $1.2 million contribution from the Anheuser-Busch
Foundation. The facility will support the department's
Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Environmental Research
program on the Eastern Shore. Combined with a $4.2 million,
six-year grant from the National Science Foundation, the
Anheuser-Busch grant brings the reserve to a new level
of teaching, research, and community outreach.
Other
record commitments were made this past year, many after
the campaign target was reached.
-
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Goodwin Jr. of Richmond made a
pledge of nearly $2.25 million to the Athletics Capital
Campaign. A 1966 graduate of the Darden School, Goodwin
is a member of the Board of Visitors.
-
An anonymous benefactor gave the School of Nursing its
largest-ever outright gift, $1 million to endow the new
Centennial Distinguished Professorship in Pediatric Nursing.
-
The University Health System received a $3.5 million bequest
for cancer research from Florence Farrow of New York City,
widow of University alumnus Joseph Helms Farrow (Col '26,
Medicine '30). The gift will support a professorship in
surgical oncology, the enhancement of library collections
in cancer-related fields, and a fellowship fund for talented
cancer researchers.
|
|
The
Carl Smith Center: A New Home for the Hoos
When the
University of Virginia football team filed onto
the field at newly renovated Scott Stadium for the
opening game of the 2000 season, the athletics program
at the University entered a new era. The $86 million
expansion project transformed the third-smallest
stadium in the ACC to the third largest, with a
seating capacity of 61,500. The stadium renovation,
stimulated by an extraordinary $25 million gift
from Carl W. Smith (Col '51), reflects the University's
determination to be competitive in athletics as
well as in academics. The expansion project was
an impressive undertaking, requiring 760,000 new
bricks, 49 miles of new telephone cable, and 72
columns, each weighing 18,000 pounds, for the pergola
that serves as a stadium promenade.
|
|
A
Broad Base of Support
- These
generous gifts reflect the high regard for University programs
on the part of alumni and friends. This shared sense of commitment
to the University's mission accounts for its exceptionally broad
donor base. More than 141,000 individuals from around the world
contributed to the capital campaign. Among other significant
contributions received this year:
-
In honor of his 35th year reunion, an anonymous donor from the
College of Arts and Sciences class of 1965 made a $2 million
planned gift to create a professorship in English and an unrestricted
fund for the dean.
-
Through the good offices of James C. Slaughter (Col '49, Law
'51), the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation has committed $2 million
for the planned faculty and student center at the law school
and $250,000 for the new Jewish studies program in arts and
sciences.
-
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation gave the Institute for Advanced
Technology in the Humanities a $1 million grant to support scholarly
research based on digital primary resources.
-
A $1 million pledge from the Elis Olsson Memorial Foundation
will support construction of the Tower Room Library in the engineering
school's proposed information technology center.
 |
-
Dr. Wallace C. Nunley Sr. (Med ‘48) of Clifton
Forge, Va., has established a charitable remainder
unitrust valued at more than $1 million to create
the Wallace C. Nunley Professorship in Family Practice
in the School of Medicine.
-
In honor of their father, Gary L. Markel of Clearwater,
Fl., and his brother Anthony (Col '64), have pledged
$2 million to create the Markel Family Lounges in
the President's Box in the new Scott Stadium.
-
With his wife, Cheryl, John D. Phillips of Atlanta
has given more than $1 million to the Athletics Capital
Campaign and the Jefferson Scholars Program.
- Current
and former members of the faculty have made generous
provisions for the University in their estate plans.
Thomas H. Estes, a professor of reading education
in the Curry School's Department of Curriculum, Instruction,
and Special Education, and his wife, Julie, have created
a $2 million trust to endow a professorship and a
fellowship in the Curry School. David W. Thompson,
who retired from the McIntire School faculty as the
Frank Kaulback Jr. Professor of Commerce, created
a $2 million trust that will fund two professorships
in accounting.
|
Building
on Our Momentum
Even
as the University celebrates its successes, much remains to be
done. The Virginia 2020 Commissions have taken a close look at
the issues that must be addressed if the University is to build
outstanding programs in science and technology, international
activities, the fine and performing arts, and public service and
outreach. The commissions have outlined an ambitious plan for
achievement in these areas.
The
University must continue to build resources to recruit and retain
distinguished scholars, to admit all qualified undergraduates
regardless of their financial means, and to maintain the facilities
and the technology necessary for first-rate teaching, scholarship,
and student life.
The
University has taken great strides forward. It is by any standard
an eminent national institution. The challenge is to build on
the momentum created by the Campaign for the University, to mobilize
the high regard and enthusiasm of its friends and supporters,
and to continue its upward trajectory as it serves the citizens
of the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
|
