With the decline in state funding for higher education in recent
years, UCLA has stepped up its fundraising efforts and received a
record amount of donations.
And as the university’s landmark fundraising campaign
approaches completion, UCLA officials have decided the time is ripe
to publicly thank some of the university’s biggest donors in
a way they hope will inspire others.
Campaign UCLA, a fundraising program that has raised nearly $3
billion since it began in 1995, will end in April. In connection
with its completion, the university plans to unveil a “Court
of Philanthropy” at the base of Janss steps in Wilson
Plaza.
The court has been under construction since late October. About
$1 million has been allocated for the project, said Phil Hampton, a
UCLA spokesman.
When the project is completed, it will consist of a
crescent-shaped, 4,000-square-foot extension of the brick and
concrete design of Wilson Plaza. It will be bordered by a sloped,
32-inch-high limestone wall where the names of more than 600 donors
will be engraved.
The wall will recognize donors who have given $1 million or more
to UCLA in their lifetimes.
As of Sunday, Campaign UCLA had raised $2,947,277,071, according
to its Web site.
Over 200,000 donors have contributed to the campaign since July
1995, said Rhea Turteltaub, associate vice chancellor in charge of
development.
The current Campaign UCLA is the second such effort in UCLA
history. A fundraising drive called “The UCLA Campaign”
concluded in 1988 after raising $373 million, according to the UCLA
History Project.
Though several donors reached the $1 million mark during the
latest version of Campaign UCLA, the wall of the Court of
Philanthropy will include names of all those whose donations have
reached this level at any point in UCLA’s history.
Philanthropic donations to UCLA have increased markedly in the
last decade.
Between 1997 and 2005, the university’s operating budget
has grown from $2.2 billion to $3.5 billion, while state funding
has dropped from 20.7 percent of the university’s budget to
15 percent. Donations account for part of the budget’s
increase, Hampton said.
Especially during periods of reduced state funding,
philanthropic donations bolster the university’s ability to
strive for excellence by giving out scholarships and providing seed
money for scientific projects so they can later secure state or
federal funding, Turteltaub said.
“It doesn’t replace state money but it allows us to
operate at a level of excellence that we wouldn’t be able to
otherwise,” she said, adding that she hopes the public
recognition will inspire more giving.
Though donors have long been recognized in honor rolls and
inside buildings, the Court of Philanthropy will mark the first
time so many donors have been honored in an outdoor setting,
Turteltaub said.
But some of the university’s top philanthropists have long
been recognized by the buildings that are named after them.
Kerckhoff Hall, for example, which was dedicated as a student
union in 1931, is named for Louise Kerckhoff, whose gift of
$715,000 financed the building, according to a timeline compiled by
the UCLA History Project. In 2001, UCLA’s medical school was
renamed the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, after the
entertainment magnate who donated $200 million to the school.
Many UCLA landmarks have been named after distinguished
graduates.
Bunche Hall, for example, is named for Ralph Bunche, who
graduated from UCLA in 1927 and won a Nobel Prize in 1950 for
negotiating a Middle East peace accord.