Friday, 5/23/97 UCLA kicks off fund-raising program with
ambitious goals in sight FUNDRAISING: Administrators say $1.2
billion necessary to run university; high aim follows Berkeley’s
steps
By Mason Stockstill Daily Bruin Contributor As UCLA’s
fund-raising campaign gets "officially" under way, administrators
are touting their recent successes, having received only positive
feedback about the potential gains the campaign promises for the
university. Chancellor-designate Albert Carnesale has already said
that "Campaign UCLA," as the campaign is known, will be high on his
list of priorities for the university. "Campaign UCLA will be the
signature of the next era in the life of UCLA," Carnesale said in a
press release. But the program that administrators kicked off last
weekend is slightly more ambitious than the one originally planned.
Chancellor Charles Young raised the goal of the campaign from the
unofficial mark of $1 billion to $1.2 billion prior to the official
announcement of the campaign on Saturday. "The decision was made
because we felt that ($1.2 billion) was the minimum amount we need
to sustain the university," Young said. One-upmanship also may have
played a role in the campaign’s ambitions as well. UC Berkeley
recently launched a $1.1 billion fund-raising campaign, dubbed the
"New Century Campaign," which aims to reach its goal by 2001. "We
saw how well Berkeley was doing, and we didn’t want to aim for
anything less than what they were," Young said. UC Berkeley is also
in the midst of a chancellorial transition phase, as Robert Berdahl
from the University of Texas, Austin takes the place of retiring
Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien. Carnesale, the choice of the UC Board of
Regents to be the next leader of UCLA, will inherit the leadership
of the campaign from Young when he takes over in July. Lt. Gov.
Gray Davis said in a recent interview that fund-raising ability was
a strong criterion for selection of the new chancellor. "It’s a new
world," Davis said, "and chancellors have to act as diplomats and
ambassadors, and also have to be very good fund-raisers. Hopefully
Carnesale will jealously guard the taxpayers’ interest." By
comparison, UCLA’s last major fund-raising campaign took place from
1983 to the end of 1988, raising $576.6 million. In the years
between campaigns, UCLA’s average amount of private support per
year hovered around $100 million per year. The current goal of $1.2
billion over seven years will require 1 1/2 times that average
yearly support. But there may be some discrepancies in the claims
made about just how much UCLA has raised in the "private" phase of
the campaign. Chancellor Young and other administrators have said
that the total stands at $446 million, but a graph distributed in a
program at the fund-raising gala on Saturday claimed the total was
$411 million. The total amount that had been reached in March stood
at $332 million, far short of the $446 million claimed now, a mere
three months later. Representatives from the Department of
Development were unavailable for comment. Each school at UCLA has a
specific goal in mind for the campaign. The goal of the medical
sciences department, which includes the UCLA Medical Center, the
hospital and the Center for Health Sciences, is $600 million –
fully half of the total goal for the campaign. While there are a
number of reasons that the medical sciences department is raising
so much money, its primary concern is the construction of a new
medical center. The hospital, damaged in the 1994 Northridge quake,
is in dire need of seismic renovation. But much of the funds needed
are coming from the state and federal governments, with only about
$75 million of the total coming from private donations, according
to Dr. Gerald Levey, dean of the medical school. "We’re most of the
way there," Levey said. "Private donations are a relatively small
part of it, really." The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
is providing most of the funds for the project because of
earthquake damage. However, administrators claim that public money
comprises a far smaller percentage of the Medical Center’s budget
than other university departments. "There is also a disparity in
the funds received from the state," Young said. "Twenty-two percent
of UCLA’s operating budget comes from state funds, but far less of
the Medical Center’s funds come from the state." The chancellor
also stressed the fact that for the past 10 to 15 years, over half
of the funds raised from the private sector went to the medical
sciences department. Young went on to address the concern that the
money raised in the campaign will not go to the right places
because the funds only go where the donors designate them. "It’s
not just about accumulating large amounts of money," he said. "We
will accommodate losses, such as faculty and staff leaving." "It’s
not just about dwindling state support," he continued. "The whole
character of support (for the university) has changed, and we need
to turn to private sources of income for the university to continue
to meet the needs of students."