The recommendation came from the Campaign Executive Committee, a group of about 50 Penn State alumni and friends that provides volunteer leadership for the campaign.

“The executive committee was motivated by the campaign’s remarkable success, and by some exciting new initiatives President Graham Spanier has proposed for Penn State,” Kirsch said. “In a planning study, we queried some of our key volunteers and donors about raising additional funds for new academic priorities, while keeping within the campaign’s original time frame. They were very enthusiastic.”

The new goal will include more than $70 million for new and renovated facilities across the University and approximately $100 million for endowments supporting faculty and students, a purpose for which more than $400 million has already been given since the campaign began. Areas of special emphasis in this final leg of the campaign include: the College of Medicine; programs that will improve the quality of student life; science, technology and research; and programs where the University, with encouragement from philanthropy, can achieve national distinction.

President Spanier and the University’s academic leadership began identifying these new initiatives last year.

 “Private support helps give us the flexibility to respond effectively to the changing needs of Penn State, and allows us to take advantage of new opportunities to serve society,” Spanier noted. “The response to the campaign thus far has been tremendous, well beyond our initial expectations, and we’re confident that our alumni and friends will want to take advantage of this momentum to build an even greater university.”

Speaking on behalf of more than 600 campaign volunteers, Campaign Chair and University Trustee James S. Broadhurst told the Board that “as we approached our $1 billion dollar goal a full two years ahead of schedule, we could see the great impact private support has had on the University and asked ourselves, ‘What more can we do to help Penn State before we end this campaign?’ Volunteer leaders and key donors are more than willing to take on this new challenge.

“We want every single college and campus of Penn State to be successful in this effort,” added Broadhurst, who is a 1965 graduate of the University and chairman and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Eat’n Park Hospitality group.

He noted that since the campaign began, donors have established more than 1,000 new endowments for scholarships, graduate fellowships, professorships, library and equipment acquisitions and a variety of other purposes.

Citing campaign support within the immediate University community, Broadhurst pointed out that members of the Board of Trustees and their families have made gifts totaling $66 million, and 47 percent of all Penn State faculty and staff have also made contributions totaling $27.4 million.

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Contact:
Mike Bezilla 863-4512 (work) 238-5842 (home) mxb13@psu.edu