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Private donors commit $77.7 million for endowment 
April 20, 2001-- On Friday, April 20, University of Virginia officials will announce the creation of a nonprofit fundraising foundation to support U.Va.’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, along with prior private commitments of $77.7 million, to endow its programmatic and capital needs. The public event will take place on the steps of Old Cabell Hall at 4 p.m. The College Foundation of the University of Virginia is a Virginia non-stock corporation organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. Created by College alumni following the U.Va. Board of Visitors' approval last June, the foundation is designed to attract high-level private investment in the University’s core undergraduate liberal-arts programs. Before today’s announcement, several private philanthropists, most of them College alumni, had donated $77.7 million to advance the school’s academic, programmatic and capital needs. The foundation named nine donors, who individually pledged $5 million or more, as founding sponsors. "We look forward to supporting, promoting and furthering the aims of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in its quest to achieve the highest Jeffersonian ideals," said Christine P. Gustafson of Paradise Valley, Ariz., a 1982 College alumna and College Foundation founding president. "The
College Foundation and its board of trustees will achieve that mission
by raising funds, by advising and supporting the dean in his efforts
to advance the College and its Two other College alumni played vital roles in obtaining approval for the foundation and ultimately in establishing it. They are Alan Y. Roberts of Charlottesville, a 1964 graduate and foundation vice president, and John L. Nau III of Houston, who graduated in 1968 and chairs the new foundation’s development committee. "Chris, Alan and John worked with single-minded purpose to create a foundation to serve the College as other University-related foundations have, for many years, supported U.Va.’s professional schools," said Melvyn P. Leffler, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. "We are deeply grateful for their leadership and for what their efforts to launch the foundation will mean for the College’s future." The foundation’s fundraising priorities include: creating the Digital Academical Village, an educational initiative to meld digital technologies and the humanities to transform liberal-arts education; establishing on Carr’s Hill a new arts precinct, a group of new and expanded buildings for the fine and performing arts; renovating and restoring the College’s historic buildings; establishing new interdisciplinary programs and academic centers; and recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty and students. Early financial support Key to the project’s success has been attracting advance financial support from some of the College’s most generous alumni. Nine donors to the College Foundation have made commitments of $5 million or more. These founding sponsors are: • Halsey M. Minor of San Francisco, a 1987 College alumnus who pledged $25 million as a challenge gift to create the Digital Academical Village. Minor founded and is chairman of CNET Networks, one of the world’s leading new media companies. Minor’s gift was announced in October 2000 during a meeting of the University of Virginia Faculty Senate. • Frank Levinson, a 1980 graduate of the doctoral program in astronomy, and Wynnette Levinson, both of Palo Alto, Calif. They committed $10 million to the Center on Religion and Democracy, a new nonpartisan, interdisciplinary research center for exploring the relationship between religion and democratic society. Levinson is chairman and chief technical officer of Finisar Corporation, a fiber optic communication systems company in Sunnyvale, Calif. The Levinsons’ gift to the College Foundation was made public in December 2000, along with an earlier $10 million gift to the astronomy department. • Kenneth L. Bazzle of Atlanta, a 1953 College alumnus who pledged $5 million to fund construction of a new music building in the proposed arts precinct. Bazzle is owner and president of DeMaximus Inc., a private investment company in Atlanta with controlling interests in real estate, natural resources, and software technology. • John H. Birdsall III of Charlottesville, a 1966 graduate of the College who pledged $5 million to support graduate fellowships in music and art history and a professorship in drama. Before his retirement in 1987, Birdsall was CEO of Tropical Shipping of Palm Beach, Fla. • Thompson Dean of New York City, a member of the class of 1979 who committed $5 million to the Asian studies program to establish the David Dean 21st Century Professorship in Asian Studies and the Thompson Dean Family Endowment for Faculty Excellence. Dean is managing director at Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity. • U. Bertram Ellis, Jr. of Atlanta, a 1975 alumnus of the College and a 1979 alumnus of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration who committed $5 million to the Digital Academical Village. Ellis is chairman and CEO of iXL Enterprises, Inc. and Consumer Financial Network. Ellis’ pledge was announced in June 2000 during his 25th class reunion, along with a $5 million gift to The Darden School. •
David Gibson of Somerset, Va., a 1962 alumnus of the College and
a 1965 alumnus of the U.Va. law school, who pledged $5 million to
the Digital Academical Village to fund construction, establish the
David E. Gibson Family 21st Century Professorship in Technology
and Culture, and endow a research fund to link the Miller Center
for Public Affairs and the Digital Academical Village. Before his
retirement, Gibson was executive vice president of Citibank. Considerable needs remain Despite the size of the foundation’s initial endowment, the school’s remaining unmet financial needs still loom large. A sustained, high-level fundraising program is required, according to the foundation’s development chairman John Nau. "To advance the agenda of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences," he said, "we intend to raise $250 million during the next five years. If we learned one thing from the recent campaign for Arts & Sciences, it was that College alumni are exceedingly generous when asked to support their alma mater." Dubbed the "Founders Challenge," the roughly $50 million-a-year program honors the founding sponsors who have, in Nau’s words, "demonstrated extraordinary financial leadership and unprecedented personal commitment to the College." "During the 1990s, the University learned to do things that public institutions don’t generally undertake — to be more self-sufficient than any other public university. This new capacity has lasting value — a value that will sustain the College in this ambitious endeavor," said University President John T. Casteen III, an alumnus of both the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a professor in its English department. "The
extraordinary efforts of these founding members will ensure academic
resources for future generations of students and faculty,"
Casteen said. "By marshalling and deploying private funds to
support excellence in the academic disciplines that define human
freedom itself — the disciplines taught in the College and
the Graduate School — these sponsors create a tremendous public
good. We and our children and our grandchildren are all in their
debt." The
College Foundation of the University of Virginia Founding
Sponsors Kenneth
L. Bazzle’53 Charter
Donors Sherrell
J. Aston ’64, Medicine ’68 The College Foundation of the University of Virginia Founding Board of Trustees Christine
P. Gustafson, ’82, Paradise Valley, Ariz., President Contact:
Carol Wood, (804) 924-6189 |
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of University Relations at (804) 924-7116. Television reporters
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