Anderson School fundraiser announced

In the presence of nearly 200 alumni and campus community members at UCLA Chancellor Gene Block’s home Thursday night, the dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Judy Olian announced the launch of a $100 million campaign to raise private funds for the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

With $46 million already raised toward the goal over the past two years, “Accelerate the Campaign for UCLA Anderson” will go on until 2010, when the fundraising will be concluded and the Anderson School will celebrate its 75th anniversary, Olian said.

The goals of the campaign have already been laid out and consist of innovating the current curriculum, maintaining teaching excellence and offering fellowships to 80 students in the Anderson programs.

In recent years, the school has found it necessary to turn to private funding in order to stay competitive with private institutions, she added.

“The complexity of the demands for business and organizational leadership is especially evident in these times of global market turbulence,” Olian said in a press release.

“As a public institution, we must bridge the funding gap to assure our excellence, and to preserve the special mission of the school.”

Some of the funding UCLA receives comes from the state, but getting donations from private sources is becoming more necessary, said Chancellor Block.

“You can and should only raise tuition so much,” said Richard Ziman, a real estate entrepreneur who endowed the interdisciplinary Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA.

“This is the first campaign Anderson has had in years, since less money is coming from the state, so the funding must come from the private.”

The campaign was given a stimulating boost from one of these private sects in May of this year.

Larry Fink ““ the chairman and chief executive officer of BlackRock, Inc. ““ and his wife Lori endowed the now Laurence and Lori Fink Center for Finance & Investments at UCLA Anderson with a $10 million donation.

As a UCLA Anderson and UCLA alumnus, Fink spoke of the importance of education and giving the school the proper tools to make a positive impact on the world’s situation today.

“With the current financial crisis, it was important to give this gift with the idea of bridging academia and global markets,” Fink said.

“Research has to be done to understand how we got into this credit crisis and find ways to resolve it.”

Chancellor Block described the Anderson School as a leader in contemporary management education, and with help from private funding, it will be ensured that it remain as such.

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