Campaign on track to meet funding goal
Published Oct. 3, 2006
As technology rapidly advances and higher education institutions receive less federal money, more pressure is falling on American universities to find outside sources of funding to meet new demands while still remaining affordable.
MU's fundraising campaign For All We Call Mizzou is working to raise $1 billion by December 2008. Chancellor Brady Deaton said only 14 other public universities in the nation are working to raise that amount.
"Mizzou is a national leader in fundraising," Deaton stated in an e-mail.
Beth Hammock, a spokeswoman for MU Development, said the campaign has raised $707 million as of last week. Initially, the goal was set at $600 million when the campaign was publicly announced in September 2003 — that amount was reached in September 2005. MU administration later announced that the fundraiser would aim for $1 billion.
Hammock said that the campaign is on pace to raise the amount by the deadline.
Changes paid for by portions of the campaign money can already be seen around different parts of campus.
Funds from the campaign were donated to help build Mizzou Arena and Cornell Hall. Also, the renovations of Ellis Library and Lafferre Hall were paid for using some of the money from the fundraiser.
Another $31 million was donated for the construction of the new Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, set to be completed in fall 2007.
Hammock said the campaign also helped to make available 458 scholarships and 66 endowed faculty positions.
"One of Chancellor Deaton's top priorities is providing more funding for scholarships because he wants Mizzou to be accessible and affordable to students," Hammock said.
Deaton said that, with the help of the For All We Call Mizzou campaign, the university can strive to offer a leg up to "needy, talented students."
"The For All We Call Mizzou campaign provides the financial resources we need to attract that talent through scholarships, endowed faculty positions and funding for research programs and state-of-the-art facilities," Deaton stated.
One of the scholarships funded by For All We Call Mizzou is the Pettus Family Scholarship, which gives full scholarships to incoming freshmen from the St. Louis metropolitan area who display high academic achievement and financial need.
Felicia Hollis, a junior and a recipient of the scholarship, said the scholarship has allowed her to get involved.
"I wouldn't even be at MU if it weren't for the scholarship," Hollis said.
The reliance on money from private fundraising campaigns represents a larger national trend for universities to increase voluntary support from private donors for higher education.
According to data from the Council for Aid to Education, voluntary support for universities in 2005 rose 4.9 percent from the previous year.
Almost half of the $25.6 billion given to universities in 2005 came from individuals, foundations and support groups. Donations from corporations did not increase.
Major contributions to MU from individual donors in 2005 included a $2.5 million contribution to the School of Journalism from the estate of Paul Synor, who earned a bachelor of journalism degree in 1942; an $8.5 million donation from William Thompson, a 1968 MU graduate, to fund the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders; and two endowed chair positions in the School of Medicine.
This year, MU received $8 million from the estate of 1931 graduate Margaret Waters Jordan. Of that, $5.3 million was placed in an unrestricted fund, which means the decision of how to use the money was left up to the university, and $2.65 million was reserved for scholarships.