Private funds aid colleges

By Lee Logan

Published Nov. 12, 2004

As state and federal funding decreases or remains stagnant, more and more public colleges are running large, private fund-raising campaigns.

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education listed 13 public universities that have campaigns of $1 billion or more.

While MU's "For All We Call Mizzou" campaign is not quite at the $1 billion level, its $600 million goal is part of a nationwide trend toward larger fund-raising campaigns.

MU spokesman Jeremy Diener said public colleges and universities must rely on private funding in order to stay competitive.

"Many public colleges and universities across the country have realized for years that in order to maintain a level of excellence, it is important to seek funding above and beyond state and federal appropriations," Diener said.

Joye Barksdale, spokeswoman for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, an organization whose members work with institutions to build relationships with donors to raise funds for projects, said the recent increase in private campaigns is connected to the economy.

"In most states, support for higher education has dropped," Barksdale said. "When the economy is in the down cycle, a state's higher education budget is one of the first to be cut."

Barksdale said this is because higher education spending is discretionary, while other programs, such as K-12 education, Medicare and Medicaid are mandatory, forcing state and federal governments to fund these programs first before higher education.

Barksdale said while many legislators understand the value of higher education, they still cannot increase funding.

"There are many institutions that are doing a really good job of getting legislators to understand the connection between a healthy higher education system and a healthy state economy," Barksdale said. "That doesn't change the fiscal realities states have to deal with."

Steve Sanders, vice president for development at the University of Iowa, said while private universities have conducted similar campaigns in the past, public schools have only recently started.

"These campaigns have been going on in higher education for many years," Sanders said. "Public universities have just joined the game a little later."

UI has raised $815 million of its $1 billion campaign, which ends next year.

Bob Thomas, director with university development at Michigan State University, said his university's campaign has two major focal points.

"We have two major thrusts," Thomas said. "One, which we sort of generically call &#39sustaining MSU's excellence' is raising $750 million for expendable costs. The other is raising $450 million for endowment."

Thomas said endowment is a major focus for many universities.

"The real push for public universities is growing the endowment," Thomas said.

Thomas said the endowment levels of private schools such as Northwestern University are significantly higher than public colleges.

"For example, Northwestern is over $4 billion, while our endowment just broke $1 billion," Thomas said.

MSU raised more than $900 million toward its goal of $1.2 billion, which ends in 2007.

Diener said the goals of MU's campaign are to improve the overall quality of the school.

"The campaign was initiated to help MU generate the private resources necessary to reach the highest level of excellence," Diener said. "We must have private financial assistance to break beyond the &#39good' mold to become a truly great university."

Diener said once the campaign is complete, the needs for private funding will not go away.

"There have been discussions about a future campaign, but those plans won't be finalized until this campaign is completed," Diener said.