Announcing CLA's capital campaign

Message sent to CLA faculty and staff, October 19, 2017

On November 4, CLA will formally announce Shattering Expectations: The Campaign for Liberal Arts.

Through this campaign we'll seek to raise $150 million to recruit top students and develop their potential; spark research, innovation, and collaboration with our communities; and build a more diverse and inclusive community. These focus areas are closely aligned with our CLA Roadmap. As such, our campaign aims to support the work you do so well now and build the foundation for a strong CLA into the future.

An Update on CLA's Campaign

As is the nature of capital campaigns, the work technically runs for ten years and has already been underway. The planning phase (or "quiet phase") for the University's Driven campaign and the College's Shattering Expectations campaign began on July 1, 2011 with the onset of President Kaler's arrival, and the campaign will close on June 30, 2021.

Our campaign work in CLA began in earnest a little over two years ago during the planning phase, and I am pleased to report that our past two years of fundraising have been especially strong.

These lead gifts have established new scholarship and fellowship funds and added to existing ones. They've also launched new professorships, research, and creative programs; facilitated collaboration with local and global partners; and opened doors for hundreds of students for whom a college education would have been out of reach without significant donor support.

We stand at $92 million raised toward our goals - an impressive and inspiring start. But that's only the start. Our focus in the campaign is not only to meet or exceed our target but to build a higher base level of giving after the campaign ends. These are the kinds of results that will provide us with the extra boost to elevate our excellence and impact and enhance opportunities for faculty, staff, and students alike.

Our Campaign Priorities

In the coming years, we'll focus on expanding experiential learning opportunities for students, increasing our graduate fellowship packages, adding more endowed chairs and professorships to our ranks, and launching innovative and flexible grant programs to fuel interdisciplinary and community-engaged research projects.

In addition to the college-level focus areas mentioned above, our departments are working on plans for their campaign priorities and we are developing white papers to share with donors that will highlight focused giving opportunities.

Our Public Kickoff Event

Our official public kickoff event will take place on November 4 at 7:30 pm in Ted Mann Concert Hall. This celebration concert will showcase more than 300 faculty and student performers from the School of Music and spotlight CLA's campaign priorities.

All CLA alumni, donors, faculty, staff, students, and community members are invited to attend the concert. I hope you'll join us for this event - it promises to be a great celebration of our collective work and aspirations for the future. Tickets are free, but an RSVP is required.

Please let me know if you have questions about the campaign or the role you can play in supporting it. Or, you can reach out directly to Mark Baumgartner, CLA's assistant dean for development, or Kaylee Highstrom, CLA's campaign director.
 

Share on: