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<p>NYU moved up not only by hiring faculty, but by giving lots of merit money to "buy" a better student body and by building a nice new law school.</p>
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<p>Quote:</p>
<p>From UCLA</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Private Money pouring into UCLA.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>