Wayne State University will launch a $750-million capital campaign this morning, hoping to raise money for student scholarships and endowed faculty positions, among other items.
“As everyone knows, this is an unprecedented time in Detroit’s history,” university President M. Roy Wilson said in an interview with the Free Press. “Wayne State doesn’t want to just take advantage of the revitalization of Detroit, we want to keep helping it. An investment in Wayne State is an investment in Detroit.
“Our goal is to become one of the premier urban public research universities in the nation. When you look at others like us, our endowment needs some work.”
The campaign, which will be announced at a 10 a.m. press conference, is called “Pivotal Moments: Our Campaign for Wayne State University.” The school will hold several showcase events across campus on Thursday to mark the official launch of the campaign.
The goal is to complete the campaign in four years, timing the completion with the university’s 150th birthday.
It’s the second time in the school’s history it has run such a campaign. It’s needed now because of shrinking state support to the school that has suffered under a performance-based funding model favored by Gov. Rick Snyder and the Legislature, school officials said. State support for all universities has dropped over the last decade, but has started a slow build back in recent years.
State support now makes up about a third of WSU’s revenue, school officials said.
“Every public institution now has to raise philanthropic dollars,” Wilson said. “We can’t just keep jacking up tuition.”
The biggest chunk of the money raised – about $275 million – will focus on student, officials said. The money will go toward endowed scholarships, internships, study abroad and success programs.
“There are a number of opportunities our students have, but they might not have the resources to take part,” Chacona W. Johnson, vice president for development and alumni affairs, told the Free Press. That’s especially true for study-abroad opportunities, she said.
Wilson said the money is needed to help keep Wayne State an open access university. Other uses for the money headed to students includes helping to support programs to help students graduate.
Other money will be used for endowed scholarships. For example, Wilson notes the school is building a new biomedical science research building.
“We’re going to have to populate that building,” he said. “You need endowments and endowed professorships, otherwise they don’t have the resources to do the work.”
Wayne State has already raised nearly half of the total, with $357.2 million coming in during a so-called “silent phase” of the campaign.
Among that money is $8.5 million from Michael and Marion Ilitch to name the department of surgery at the School of Medicine and establish an endowed chair in surgical innovation.
More than 300,000 gifts from alumni, friends, corporation and foundations have already coming in. School officials say nearly 80% of those gifts have been for $1,000 or less.
Wayne State isn’t the only school in the midst of a fundraising drive. The University of Michigan launched a $4 billion campaign last spring.
Source: MEDC
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