The Board of Trustees approved on Friday a $1.5 billion goal for the university’s first capital campaign since 2007.
Empower Extraordinary: The Campaign for Michigan State University is a university-wide fundraising campaign intended to create more opportunities for MSU students and faculty.
The campaign will raise money through December 2018, and individual colleges and other units, such as the athletic department, are coordinating their own campaigns.
“For us, the challenge is, we are probably 50 years behind some other leading universities in our sophistication in raising private funds. And that’s rapidly changing. The last decade we have gotten much more mature; our alumni and friends have not had as much experience in running campaigns and being a part of campaigns as they do now,” said Robert Groves, vice president of university advancement.
The university began the silent phase of the campaign in July 2011 and has raised $780 million so far. On Friday, the public campaign was launched at Wharton Center with donors, deans and faculty and students in attendance.
One main goal of the campaign is to increase the university’s number of endowed chairs and professorships. The positions are a means of maintaining and recruiting the most qualified faculty members, and with 100 endowed chairs and professorships, MSU has fewer than most universities in the Big Ten.
Through the capital campaign, MSU also plans on raising enough funds give out 3,000 scholarships to students, worth approximately $5,000 each , and invest in new buildings and research projects.
President Lou Anna K. Simon said she wants to give every student an equal chance to learn with the best possible resources.
“There is a facilities piece, athletics has the north end zone, but everyone has a piece of (the campaign),” Simon said. “And we simply want to appreciate the value of your degree over time.”
