The Campaign for Washington University, a fund-raising initiative launched to secure the resources needed to realize the University’s potential for the good of generations to come, ended on June 30 with $1.55 billion in gifts and commitments and a record 165 new endowed professorships. The Campaign’s successful completion was announced by Mark S. Wrighton, Chancellor. The gift total is a Washington University record, and the number of new endowed professorships is believed to be the largest number generated in any national campaign to date.
“This extraordinary generosity ensures that Washington University will do even better at what it already does very, very well — learning and discovery,” said Wrighton, whose appointment as the University’s 14th chancellor coincided with the start of the Campaign. “Our students and society will be the beneficiaries.”
The decision to undertake the Campaign for Washington University followed an early-1990s, long-range, University-wide, strategic planning process, dubbed Project 21. During that planning process, the deans and faculty of each of the University’s eight schools, the University Libraries, and the Division of Student Affairs — under the guidance of their National Council advisory groups — examined their respective areas, identified priorities for the early 21st century, and developed strategies to turn those visions into reality. The Board of Trustees assessed each of the Project 21 reports — which identified more than $1.5 billion in needs and opportunities — and focused on common themes, adopting the singular goal “to accelerate Washington University’s ascent among the world’s premier universities.”
Goals exceeded — twice!
In September 1998, following a three-year leadership phase in which gifts and commitments of $541 million had been secured, the University publicly announced the Campaign with an overall goal of $1 billion to be raised by June 30, 2004. By October 2000, with imminent achievement of that goal in sight, trustees raised the bar to $1.3 billion to more closely approximate the 1995 projected cost of implementing high priorities identified in Project 21. The original goal of $1 billion was surpassed in April 2001. By December 2002 the increased goal of $1.3 billion had been exceeded. And on June 30, 2004, the Campaign was concluded with gifts and commitments of $1,551,350,170.
“Building a world-class university is an exciting challenge,” said Wrighton, “and the success of our Campaign will ensure Washington University’s leadership in the 21st century. Thanks to extraordinary leadership provided by Campaign chairs John McDonnell and Sam Fox and the generosity of the more than 95,000 alumni, parents, and friends-including the many corporations, foundations, faculty and staff members, and others-who contributed to this Campaign, the University today is stronger than ever.
International network of leadership and volunteers
The Campaign for Washington University was carried out under the direction of 25 local, national, and international volunteer leaders, assisted by more than 5,000 volunteers. John F. McDonnell, retired chairman of the board of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation and chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees from June 1999 through July 2004, chaired the leadership phase. Sam Fox (BU51), chairman and chief executive officer of Harbour Group, Ltd. and a life trustee of the University, headed the public phase. David T. Blasingame, executive vice chancellor for alumni and development programs, served as executive director of the Campaign.
“Ours is a University that exerts a powerful impact on people’s lives: here in St. Louis, throughout the Midwest, and across America,” said McDonnell. “All of us who are associated with Washington University, who know what the University has accomplished and what it stands for, also know the tremendous potential it has to contribute even more to the frontiers of science and scholarship. I am confident this unprecedented investment in Washington University will result in even greater benefits for society and will make a significant difference in what our faculty and students can accomplish. By participating in this Campaign, each of us will be making a permanent mark on the University.”
Impact of the Campaign
In fact, the impact of the Campaign for Washington University is already being felt across the Hilltop and Medical campuses, in and outside the classrooms and laboratories. From the many new emphases in education and research, to new construction and renovation, to new initiatives to enhance student life, the Campaign is helping the University to better serve its students and the wider world. For example, in the years since the counting period for the Campaign started:
• 165 new endowed professorships, including 11 endowed faculty fellowships, were established, more than double the number in existence at the University prior to the start of the Campaign. That added incentive helps the University attract more of the outstanding faculty it seeks, while retaining more of the great faculty already at the University.
• 26 new buildings, including the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center in the Olin School of Business, the McDonnell Pediatric Research Building and the Eric P. Newman Education Center in the School of Medicine, the Laboratory Science Building and the Earth and Planetary Sciences Building in Arts & Sciences, Anheuser-Busch Hall for the School of Law, Uncas A. Whitaker Hall for Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Alvin Goldfarb Hall for the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, and the Lucy and Stanley Lopata House for students have been constructed. Ground has been broken for two more in the Sam Fox Arts Center — the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum and the Earl E. and Myrtle E. Walker Hall — for the School of Art and for the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center on the Medical Campus. Extensive renovations have been completed on others, including historic Graham Chapel and the John M. Olin Library.
• More than $185 million in new endowment for scholarships, including $25 million — the largest gift ever received for this purpose in the history of the University — for the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Scholars program, has been raised to help ensure that more deserving young men and women will have the opportunity for a Washington University education, including those with limited personal and/or family resources.
• New academic initiatives and programs have been launched, including a Department of
Biomedical Engineering, American Culture Studies in Arts & Sciences, and a joint Executive MBA program with Fudan University in Shanghai, China. New centers and institutes have placed increased emphases on cancer treatment and research at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, international law through the Whitney R. Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies, executive education in the Olin School of Business, and two campus-wide, interdisciplinary centers — The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Center for Aging. The new BioMed 21 initiative, which was announced in 2003, will facilitate advances designed to address diseases’ biggest questions.
• An unprecedented investment in campus life has reconfigured the residential areas, including the South 40 and the Village’s new clusters for small group living, channeled millions of dollars into new residential construction and renovation, broadened the landscape of health services available to students through the Habif Health and Wellness Initiative, and redefined the concepts of student housing. And on the 100th anniversary of the 1904 Olympic games hosted by the University, the historic outdoor athletic facility — Francis Field — was renovated.
Wide basis of support serves many needs
A breakdown of the $1.55 billion raised shows the following designations: $558.5 million for academic programs, $230.9 million for endowed faculty support and research, $185.1 million in new endowment for scholarships, $180.9 million for facilities, $114.6 million for the Annual Fund, $127.8 million for the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center [$62.9 million of which is included in other totals listed here], and $216.1 million for unrestricted and other endowment purposes.
“This is a very significant sum of money, and we have the responsibility to deploy these resources wisely,” said Fox. “When I accepted the job of chairing the public phase of the Campaign, I told people this: ‘Washington University is doing such great things, but it has the potential to do even more, to go further; not so that we can boast about how much we raised, not to move up on the list of universities with the largest endowments, but to do even more to make this a better country, a better society, and yes, a better world.’ And I tell people the same thing today: Washington University’s potential is unlimited.”
Among the major contributors to the Campaign for Washington University were: alumni who provided $609.5 million; parents of students who gave $46 million; other individuals who provided $261.4 million; corporations and foundations that contributed $442.1 million; and other organizations and groups that donated $192.5 million. The largest single gift to the Campaign was a $100 million grant from the Danforth Foundation.
“Washington University is extremely fortunate to have so many alumni and friends who recognize what it does for its students and society, and who care so deeply about its future,” said Blasingame. “I am extremely grateful to each and everyone who participated in this most ambitious effort — to each of our many volunteers, to our faculty and staff, and to the more than 95,000 individuals who supported this drive for excellence with their gifts. The success of this Campaign is helping to accelerate our ascent among the world’s premier universities, but, ultimately, that success will be measured by what we do in service both to our students and to the wider world.”