University raises $137.4 million in 2010-11, including a $27 million gift to recruit, retain outstanding faculty
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Propelled in part by an anonymous $27 million gift – the largest in the university’s history – Rutgers raised a record $137.4 million in private donations during the 2010-11 academic year, the Rutgers University Foundation announced today.More than 90 percent of the year’s fundraising will support academic programs and other initiatives that directly benefit students, said Rutgers University President Richard L. McCormick.
“We are grateful to the more than 56,000 donors who have supported Rutgers University over the past year, despite the chronic economic challenges that plague our nation,” President McCormick said. “These generous individuals and institutions clearly share our belief that private financial support for Rutgers University is a sound investment that will continue to pay dividends for the people of New Jersey for decades to come.”
The past year’s record level of fundraising marked the latest milestone in Our Rutgers, Our Future, the university’s historic $1 billion fundraising campaign. The campaign addresses critical needs across all areas of the university – including faculty research, student support and campus facilities.
The $27 million anonymous gift announced today is structured as a challenge grant that will establish 18 new endowed chairs in a wide range of academic disciplines, including business education and the sciences.
For every $1.5 million that is raised for an endowed chair that meets the donor’s criteria, the donor will match the gift with an additional $1.5 million. A total endowment of $3 million is needed to create an academic chair.
“Endowed chairs provide permanent sources of funding for faculty positions, enabling the university to attract and retain internationally acclaimed leaders in high-priority academic fields,” said Rutgers University Foundation President Carol P. Herring.
“This is an exceptional opportunity for our university,” Herring said. “Endowed chairs are among the highest priorities of our fundraising campaign, because they enable the university to recruit and retain faculty who will provide Rutgers undergraduate and graduate students with the highest levels of instruction and research opportunities.”
In 2008, the same anonymous donor gave $13 million to the university; at the time, this was the largest donation in Rutgers’ history. The bulk of that donation, $10 million, supports construction of a new building for the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick on the Livingston Campus in Piscataway. The remaining $3 million supports the Bennett L. Smith Endowed Chair in Business and Natural Resources, named for the late geology professor who retired from Rutgers in 1974. To date, this donor has given a total of $40 million to support university initiatives as part of Our Rutgers, Our Future.
Other notable gifts from the past year include:
- An anonymous $10 million donation to support the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health. The institute will build on the university’s extensive work in the fields of agriculture food science, nutrition science and human health, with a focus on society’s pressing challenges in cardio-inflammatory disease, cancer and obesity.
- A $6 million pledge from alumnus Mir Imran (Engineering 1977) to support academic initiatives in the School of Engineering. Half of this pledge, $3 million, will support the Mir Imran Endowed Chair in Bioengineering. Another $1.5 million will support the Imran Family Scholarship to benefit undergraduate engineering students. The remaining $1.5 million will go to the Imran Fund for the School of Engineering, which will create a dean’s discretionary fund for faculty research.
- $5 million from alumnus John J. Byrne Jr. (Rutgers College 1954) to support the Byrne Family First-Year Seminar Program, which connects prominent faculty with first-year students. Each of these small, one-credit courses is limited to 20 students. This academic year, nearly 3,000 Rutgers first-year students are expected to participate in Byrne seminars.
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A $3.4 million pledge from Rutgers College alumna Marlene A. Tepper and her husband, David A. Tepper, to the Mason Gross School of the Arts. The donation stipulates $3 million to establish for the first endowed faculty chair at the school, in the Visual Arts Department. The remaining $400,000 is earmarked for scholarships in the painting program.
President McCormick officially launched the public phase of Our Rutgers, Our Future on Oct. 13, 2010. To date, the campaign has raised $574.4 million, including: - More than $81 million to create and enhance 1,354 undergraduate scholarships
- $67 million for new construction and renovation of existing facilities
- $63 million to support graduate students
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13 new endowed faculty chairs.
Established in 1766, Rutgers is America’s eighth oldest institution of higher learning and one of the nation’s premier public research universities. Serving more than 58,000 students on campuses in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick, Rutgers is one of only two New Jersey institutions represented in the prestigious Association of American Universities.
Media Contact: Greg Trevor
732-932-7084, ext. 623
E-mail: gtrevor@ur.rutgers.edu