Though a decade-long fund-raising campaign that ends next year
has more than doubled the flow of private money pouring into UCLA,
officials say a trend of shrinking government funding of public
universities means UCLA will depend even more on private donations
in years to come.
Campaign UCLA, launched publicly in May 1997, reached its target
earlier this year of raising $2.4 billion for campus entities
including professional schools, athletics and the library.
University charts show the average annual private donations to UCLA
stand at $250 million, up from $100 million prior to the current
fund-raising effort.
The campaign will last through Dec. 31, 2005, and Rhea
Turteltaub, assistant vice chancellor for development, said the
money goes toward everything from research to faculty chair
endowments. While the fund-raising push has achieved success beyond
initial ambitions, the university now needs to narrow its focus,
she added.
Chancellor Albert Carnesale said in a meeting with the Daily
Bruin this month that as California continues to suffer budget
woes, UCLA must concentrate on strengthening its floundering
ability to compete with private universities in recruiting graduate
students, faculty and researchers.
Turteltaub said this “competitiveness gap” was the
principal motivation behind creating the Initiative to Ensure
Academic Excellence, a UCLA fund-raising effort started this spring
to raise $250 million over the next five years, and “to
provide a laser sharp focus on the needs of students and
faculty.”
Tracie Christensen, executive director of development for the
UCLA College, said departments partaking in UCLA-wide campaigns
benefit by gaining visibility with more donors.
Measures like privately funded student scholarships help
compensate for increased student fees, but the majority of money
the campaign raises does not directly fill gaps left by slashed
government funding, she added.
“Some people might see that as a disadvantage, but we
don’t raise money to bridge the deficit gap. … Philanthropy
is for that margin of excellence,” she said.
The renovation of Glorya Kaufman Hall, a dance building
dedicated this year, mirrors the idea that private donations should
contribute more toward excellence than to sustenance, said Laura
Parker, School of Arts and Architecture assistant dean.
The campaign will give the school of arts “world class,
state-of-the-art facilities that we never would have had without
private philanthropy ““ never in a million years,”
Parker said.
Now that funding for new buildings has been hammered out, the
School of Arts and Architecture will reevaluate its Campaign UCLA
goals for the coming year, Parker said. Private money will likely
work to balance lacks in public funding, she added.
“Student scholarships, faculty support and discretionary
funding are three top priorities,” she said. “And
that’s desperately needed because of budget cuts.”