The College has successfully
concluded its $150 million Bicentennial Campaign, one of
the largest fundraising efforts ever undertaken by a
liberal arts college.
The campaign, announced publicly in
April, 1991, received gifts and commitments totaling
$151,135,150.
The successful conclusion of the
campaign was announced by President Roger H. Hull at a
convocation opening the College's 203rd year.
“The promise of Union's future is
to build upon its past achievements,” Hull said.
“To do that, we must have the resources that make a
college great — superb faculty, innovative academic
programs, motivated students, and first-rate facilities.
The success of this campaign helps us in each area and
gives enormous impetus as we enter our third century of
service. To the many alumni and friends who took part in
this effort, I want to express, on behalf of the entire
Union family, our heartfelt thanks.”
During the campaign, the College's
endowment increased from $80 million to $200 million.
The president said the true value of
the campaign is measured in more than just dollars and
cents. “We are delighted by the numerical
accomplishments, but the real success story is how they
are translated into improvements for our students, our
faculty, and our campus,” he said.
“Fortunately, the list of improvements is a long
one.”
Added Norton H. Reamer '58, national
chairman of the campaign, “The amount of support is
great, but the projects and programs accomplished are of
even greater import.”
The president cited a number of
examples of how the campaign has helped Union:
— The number of endowed chairs has
increased to twenty-seven, with the following established
during the campaign:
* the Horace E. Dodge III '46
Professorship in Electrical Engineering. Dodge, a former
engineer with the General Electric Co., was a
philanthropist in California.
* the R. Gordon Gould '41 Professorship
in Physics. Gould, the inventor of the laser, established
his professorship to honor Frank Studer, his former
professor.
* the Robert B. Howe '58 Professorship
in Developmental Biology. Howe is associate dean for
faculty and clinical affairs at the University of
Minnesota Medical School, and his chair honors Raymond
Rappaport, professor emeritus of developmental biology.
* the Carl B. Jansen '22 Professorship
in Civil Engineering. Jansen was the chairman of the
board of the Dravo Corp. and a lead project engineer of
the Golden Gate Bridge.
* the Kenneth B. Sharpe '43
Professorship in Management. Sharpe was chairman of the
board of Sharpe Manufacturing Co., the country's leading
manufacturer of paint spray guns.
— International study programs have
been added in Brazil, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, the Czech
Republic, India, Kenya, Korea, Poland, Puerto Rico,
Wales, and Zimbabwe. Union is among the top dozen
colleges in the country in the percentage of students who
study abroad.
— The College's engineering curriculum
has been redesigned, thanks to a $750,000 grant from the
General Electric Foundation.
— The College's research facilities
were enhanced through a number of gifts ranging from an
advanced multipurpose laboratory for optical spectroscopy
to a new greenhouse and two electronic classrooms.
— Schaffer Library is undergoing an
$18 million renovation and expansion that will increase
its size from 65,000 to 98,000 square feet. The new
library is designed and equipped to provide faculty and
students with the swiftest possible access to information
from around the world. Support included a $2 million
grant from the Schaffer Foundation of Schenectady.
— An $11 million restoration of the
Nott Memorial has transformed it into a spectacular
center for meetings, exhibitions, and study. At the
building's rededication in 1995, historian David
McCullough said, “There's nothing like it anywhere
else in the world.”
— The F.W. Olin Center, a
high-technology classroom and laboratory building, is
under construction, thanks to a $9 million gift from the
F.W. Olin Foundation, of New York City.
— The Morton and Helen Yulman Theater
opened, adding not only a theater but an actors' lab, a
scene shop, a design and drafting lab, and a costume
shop. The lead gift of $3 million was made by Morton '36
and Helen Yulman.
— Improvements were made to such
important buildings as:
* the Murray and Ruth Reamer Campus
Center, thanks to Norton H. Reamer '58, whose support
also aided the College in a number of other ways;
* Feigenbaum Hall, thanks to Armand V.
'42 and Donald S. '46 Feigenbaum;
* Memorial Chapel, where projects
totalling more than $1 million ranged from repairing the
roof and cupola to restoring the interior.
— An endowment to provide for the
upkeep and preservation of Jackson's Garden, the
College's eight acres of formal gardens and woodland, was
established by a gift from Doug '57 and Barbara Seholm,
of Galway, N.Y., and Houston, Texas.
— Endowed scholarships funds
dramatically increased. Union now has 320 endowed
scholarships, of which 128 were added during the
campaign; they make up 13.8 percent of the College's
institutional financial aid program. The number of
scholarships created during the campaign represents forty
percent of all endowed scholarships established at Union
(since the first one in 1874).
— The Chester Arthur Undergraduate
Support of Excellence (CAUSE) Program was introduced.
Named after the twenty-first president of the United
States and the founder of the Civil Service Commission,
CAUSE provides loans to students that are canceled at a
rate of twenty percent for each year graduates engage in
public service, broadly defined.
Wide support shown
for campaign
The Bicentennial Campaign received
23,362 gifts from individuals, including 370 of $25,000
or more. There were twenty-eight gifts of $1 million or
more. In addition to those already mentioned, they
include:
— $5 million from Margaret M. Dyson
for the restoration of the Nott Memorial. Under the terms
of the bequest, the College had to raise $10 million for
capital or endowment purposes on a challenge basis; the
total reached was $10,342,884.
— $5 million from David C. Mandeville
'45, with $1 million going to the restoration of the Nott
Memorial and the remainder to establish a scholarship
fund.
— $3.5 million from Ben Brown '35.
— $3.5 million from Franklin L. Fero
'17 for scholarships.
— $3 million from S. Wellford Corbin
'30.
— $2.1 million from Agnes Macdonald
and her sister, Laura Auer, of Niskayuna, N.Y.
— $2 million from Stanley Peschel '52.
— $1.6 million from Elizabeth Rue, the
widow of Ralph Rue '23.
— $1.4 million from Neil B. Reynolds
'24, to be used for the library and for endowment.
— $1.25 million from Frederick C.
Wikoff, Jr., '43 for the Nott Memorial restoration.
— $1.2 million from John Deegan '23.
— $1.1 million from Dwane Crichton
'33.
— $1 million from Philip R. Beuth '54
to support the renovation and expansion of the library.
— $1 million from Raymond V. Gilmartin
'63 to be used for the library and to meet a challenge
from the Kresge Foundation.
— $1 million from William R. Grant
'49, LL.D. '83.
— $1 million from Kenneth T. and
Thelma P. Lally, of Niskayuna, N.Y., to establish a
reading room in Schaffer Library.
— $1 million given anonymously for
scholarships.
Corporate and foundation challenges
met
Major gifts from corporations and
foundations included several challenge grants, in which
foundation gifts had to be matched by alumni and friends.
In every case, the challenge was met. Included were:
— Three challenges from the Kresge
Foundation, of Troy, Mich. One, for $500,000, was to add
scientific equipment and to establish an endowment fund
for the repair, upkeep, and replacement of the College's
$5 million inventory of scientific equipment. The second
challenge grant, for $750,000, was for the restoration of
the Nott Memorial and the completion of the Yulman
Theater. The third grant, for $800,000, was for the
renovation and expansion of Schaffer Library.
— Challenges from the William and
Flora Hewitt Foundation, totalling $350,000, and the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, totalling $300,000, used to
strengthen Union's Terms Abroad programs and to support
CAUSE;
— A National Endowment for the
Humanities challenge grant of $575,000 to provide
equipment and library materials in the renovated library.
— Three matching grants totalling
nearly $450,000 from the National Science Foundation's
Academic Research Infrastructure program for laboratories
and research equipment.
— A $250,000 challenge grant from the
Louis Calder Foundation, of New York City, to establish a
scholarship endowment for low-income students from New
York.
— A $250,000 challenge from the Fred
L. Emerson Foundation, of Auburn, N.Y., for library
technology endowment and another $250,000 grant for the
Yulman Theater.
— A $175,000 grant from the W.M. Keck
Foundation, of Los Angeles, to renovate two chemistry
laboratories and equip them with sophisticated
spectroscopic instrumentation.
Other grants included:
— Two grants totalling $350,000 from
the Schenectady Foundation to support the Nott Memorial
and library projects.
— A $191,000 grant from the General
Electric Fund to establish the Union College Teaching and
Learning Center, designed to provide new skills to
teachers in the fifth through ninth grades.
The campaign also saw the addition of
twenty-three constituency groups to assist and advise the
College on a variety of matters, from academic programs
to alumni leadership. During the campaign, 575 volunteers
worked for the Annual Fund, which reached $3,487,200 in
1997 and contributed important annual support to the
College.
Dan West, vice president for college
relations, said the campaign lifted Union to a new level
of fundraising effectiveness. “In the last year of
the campaign, more than $18.6 million in receipts came
in,” he said.