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UVa could exceed $3B capital goal</p>
<p>By Brian McNeill / <a href="mailto:bmcneill@dailyprogress.com">bmcneill@dailyprogress.com</a> | 978-7266
September 9, 2007</p>
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<p>Not long after the University of Virginia concluded its $1 billion fundraising campaign in 2000, UVa President John T. Casteen III dashed off an e-mail to his top fundraising official, Bob Sweeney.</p>
<p>B, What would it take to ratchet up development? J, Casteen asked.</p>
<p>With the arrival of that snappy e-mail message in Sweeneys in-box, Casteen laid the seeds for the most ambitious capital campaign in UVas history.</p>
<p>Now, nearly one year after the public launch of UVas five-year effort to raise $3 billion in private contributions, the Campaign for the University of Virginia is going so swimmingly that some top UVa officials speculate it may exceed its target by as much as $1 billion.</p>
<p>We want to be the first privately financed public university, Sweeney said. Our goal is to make the words great and public no longer mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>As of July 31, UVa had collected $1.465 billion in cash and pledges. The campaign ends Dec. 31, 2011.</p>
<p>It looks as if we may do even better than we thought was possible, said L.F. Payne, a member of UVas Board of Visitors and a former area congressman. Were very pleased. Weve gotten a good response from the large donors, the medium donors and the everyday donors as well.</p>
<p>Though UVa has no immediate plans to raise the campaigns goal beyond $3 billion, university officials said they are optimistic they will surpass the target. UVa exceeded the previous campaigns $1 billion goal by more than $430 million.</p>
<p>To meet its $3 billion goal, the university must raise slightly more than $1.025 million per day for 2,129 days.</p>
<p>Were ahead of schedule, said Sweeney, who earns a $385,000 salary from UVa. We just might pull this off.</p>
<p>If it does, UVa will have completed the largest fundraising total currently sought by a public university. Only four private institutions have more lucrative fundraising efforts under way - Stanford University ($4.3 billion), Cornell University ($4 billion), Columbia University ($4 billion) and Johns Hopkins University ($3.2 billion).</p>
<p>Big money</p>
<p>Upon the successful conclusion of its capital campaign, UVas $4.5 billion endowment would have swelled to $7.5 billion.</p>
<p>The university typically spends between 3 percent and 4 percent of its endowment annually. Meanwhile, the endowment has averaged a 14 percent return over the past decade, with a whopping 25 percent return over the past year.</p>
<p>UVa officials hope that their overflowing cash coffers will propel the university upwards to join the nations Top 10 institutions of higher education. UVa consistently ranks as the No. 1 or No. 2 best public university, but is beat out by roughly 20 private colleges and universities.</p>
<p>At the end of this, we should be one of the most important institutions - public or private - of this generation, Sweeney said.</p>
<p>By relying less on shaky state funding, the thinking goes, UVa will have more power to grow into a top-tier institution.</p>
<p>No state, no matter how generous, can afford to finance a world-class institution, Sweeney said. Can we become the place that attracts the worlds best and brightest, regardless of economics, regardless of race? Were not there yet, but we could be soon.</p>
<p>As part of a deal with Virginia that went into effect last year, UVa agreed to forgo some state revenue in exchange for more authority over its tuition, spending and personnel management. The state contributes roughly 9 percent of UVas $2.1 billion annual budget.</p>
<p>Last month, Gov. Timothy M. Kaines office announced that UVa, Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary must slash their state funding allocation by 7.5 percent. Kaine called for the cuts because of slower than expected state revenue projections. For UVa, that comes to roughly $11.5 million. With its larger endowment, UVa officials said, the university will be able to more easily weather such cuts in the future.</p>
<p>Long-term vision</p>
<p>One of the biggest recipients of UVas hundreds of millions will be its science, engineering and technology departments. The university will try to specialize its research capability in certain boutique areas - such as biomedical science, nanotechnology and the genetics of cancer cells - that will allow UVa to become an international leader in those particular fields.</p>
<p>One example of this can already be seen in UVas academic stars initiative, in which $20 million was allocated to hire six research professors over the past year. Those six academics, specializing in engineering, physics and biomedical research, have already drawn $45 million in grant money to UVa.</p>
<p>Casteens long-term vision to revamp UVa as a privately financed public university is a fundamental reason why the capital campaign is going so well, said UVa Rector W. Heywood Fralin.</p>
<p>Our contributors believe in the long-range plans and goals of the university and know that private support is essential for the universitys future success, Fralin wrote in a recent e-mail while visiting Italy.</p>
<p>Ricardo Padron, the new president of UVas Faculty Senate, said he is optimistic about the changes coming to the university. He believes the capital campaign will help make UVa a more competitive research institution. I think its going to make for a better university, said Padron, a professor of languages.</p>
<p>However, he added, UVa must not forget, as it beefs up its spending, that graduate students and professorships need increased funding as well.</p>
<p>We dont have the track record of fundraising for core needs, he said. We need to also meet the needs of the meat and potatoes of what we do here.
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