Brown University News Bureau

The Brown University News Bureau

1996-1997 index

Distributed October 10, 1996
Contact: Mark Nickel

Campaign raises $534 million, 118% of goal

Brown celebrates success of Campaign for the Rising Generation

The Campaign for the Rising Generation has raised $534 million to reendow Brown University's library, faculty, student scholarships and academic programs. Brown will mark the conclusion of the campaign with the première of a dramatic and musical work - an outdoor festival of sound and light - Oct. 11-12.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (October 10, 1996) -- Vartan Gregorian, 16th president of Brown University, today announced the successful completion of Brown's Campaign for the Rising Generation. The $534-million fund-raising initiative was designed to preserve and strengthen the excellent teaching and scholarship that are at the core of Brown's mission. It also has sustained several initiatives that use the University's resources to address some of the nation's most critical problems.

"A great university must have three ingredients. It must have an excellent faculty, a great library and a student body of the highest caliber," Gregorian said. "We undertook this campaign to reendow those assets, to give Brown University a solid financial footing that does justice to the excellence of its academic programs. In certain essential areas, this campaign has allowed us to accomplish in 10 years as much as we had accomplished in the last century."

Brown's academic priorities

The campaign met the University's number-one priority: to strengthen the faculty. It raised $152.6 million in support of faculty and academic programs, with an additional $54 million for new and refurbished academic facilities. In addition to endowing 27 new chairs for distinguished senior faculty, Brown created 16 endowed chairs for faculty at the assistant professor rank. These endowed assistant chairs have enhanced the University's ability to recruit the brightest new minds in all disciplines. They provide young scholars with crucial funds for research, professional travel and equipment early in their careers when they need it most.

Eight years ago, Brown celebrated the acquisition of the library's two-millionth volume. Today, with $23 million for libraries raised in the campaign, the University is planning to celebrate the acquisition of its three-millionth volume, together with expanded electronic resources that give students access to materials in research libraries throughout the world.

The campaign has enabled Brown to double its endowment for undergraduate scholarships and to add significantly to its support for graduate and medical students. This year, Brown was able to offer 225 new undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships, providing scholarship support to 39 percent of its undergraduates.

Brown in the nation's service

Not all of the campaign was aimed at gaining support for campus-based initiatives, however. "President Gregorian has often observed that colleges and universities have an obligation to look beyond their borders and respond to urgent national needs, especially the need to improve primary and secondary education," said Brown Chancellor A. O. Way. "The Campaign for the Rising Generation raised more than five times its original goal for supporting strategic national initiatives. I take that as strong evidence of Brown's determination to enlist its energy and expertise in service to the nation."

Among initiatives to benefit from the campaign were the Coalition of Essential Schools, one of the oldest and best-known school reform organizations in the nation; the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, established by the University in 1993; and the Leadership Alliance, another Brown-based initiative. The Leadership Alliance unites historically black colleges and universities with some of the nation's best known universities, including the Ivy League, to recruit, develop leadership and retain excellent scholarly talent from minority groups for the nation's professoriate.

"When the campaign was in the planning stages, a $450-million goal was a daunting prospect - nearly three times larger than Brown's previous campaign," said Artemis A. W. Joukowsky, vice chancellor and national campaign chair. "Its successful conclusion - raising an astounding $85 million above that original goal - is a tribute to the extraordinary effort of the Brown community, including more than 53,000 donors, record high levels of alumni giving, and participation by 73 percent of the Brown faculty. We are proud that we, who were entrusted with a challenge unlike any other in the history of our University, have, with high-spirited dedication and devotion, fulfilled our role for succeeding rising generations."

That record level of participation may be among the campaign's greatest legacies, Gregorian said. "I am delighted that this campaign has given the University more than financial support. The circle of alumni, students, faculty, parents and friends who will sustain Brown into the next century is now much larger," Gregorian said. "On behalf of the entire University community, I would like to thank Art Joukowsky, the national campaign chair, and Tony Ittleson, the executive campaign chair, and all the members of the Campaign Steering Committee for their leadership. I would also like to commend Ann Caldwell, vice president for development, her predecessor, Samuel Babbitt, and the entire staff of the Development Office for their work in bringing this most remarkable campaign to such a brilliant conclusion."

The University community will celebrate the Campaign's success Oct. 10-12, during the fall meeting of the Brown Corporation, the University's governing body. The celebration will include the première of a dramatic and musical work about the University and its history - an outdoor festival of sounds, music, projected images and laser effects to be performed at night on The College Green.

Major campaign achievements


Sources of Campaign funding (in millions)

      
Alumni and alumnae       $276.5       51.8%
Friends of the University95.5 17.9%
Foundations77.514.5%
Parents44.88.4%
Corporations33.76.3%
Faculty/Students/Other6.01.1%
Total$534.0100%

Funding the University's priorities (in millions)

         Goal       Raised       % of Goal
Faculty and Academic Support$175.0$152.687.2
Student Scholarships75.073.097.4
Brown Annual Fund55.056.4102.5
Facilities55.054.198.3
Medical *40.021.854.4
Libraries25.022.991.67
National Initiatives15.084.9566.5
Athletics10.016.9168.8
Unrestricted Endowment/Other-51.4-
Total$450.0$534.0118.67

*Midway through the Campaign for the Rising Generation, the University decided to undertake a separate campaign to raise support for the Brown University School of Medicine. Planning for that campaign is now under way.


Endowment funds raised

Faculty and Academic Support         $103,558,961
Student Scholarships63,035,242
National Initiatives32,173,315
Libraries18,029,232
Medical *8,410,409
Athletics8,135,360
Facilities18,250,243
Unrestricted and Other11,599,346
Total$263,192,108

*Midway through the Campaign for the Rising Generation, the University decided to undertake a separate campaign to raise support for the Brown University School of Medicine. Planning for that campaign is now under way.

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