Alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students, and friends of UC San Diego joined together to achieve the seemingly impossible goal of raising $1 billion through the seven-year Campaign for UCSD, which concluded on June 30, 2007.
June graduate Sarahi Loya expressed her gratitude to donors for making it possible for her to attend UCSD. “Due to financial difficulties, my parents were only able to attain a sixth-grade education in Mexico. Yet now I am on my way to a dream my parents could never envision—I am applying to medical school.”
Added Robert Nguyen, father of seven-year-old brain cancer patient Allyson, “With this generous campaign support, the university can continue to expand its leading-edge technology in the fight against cancer to help families like us.” For the Nguyen family, the Moores UCSD Cancer Center helped turn a devastating medical situation into one with hope.
The market value of the UC San Diego Foundation endowment—funds that generate income in perpetuity—doubled to over $350 million during The Campaign for UCSD, helping the campus fund a wide variety of donor-designed needs ranging from student scholarships to faculty recruitment, infrastructure enhancement to research support. The endowment is managed by the UC San Diego Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to securing and stewarding private gifts and grants that benefit UC San Diego.
Eight trustees were appointed to the UC San Diego Foundation board for three-year terms beginning July 1, 2007: Richard Atkinson; Mary Ann Beyster; Elizabeth Van Denburgh, ’78; Darcy Bingham; Daniel Yankelovich; Thomas Schwartz, ’80; Leo Spiegel, ’83; and faculty representative Suresh Subramani.
Using traditional and new media tools, UCSD’s University Communications and Public Affairs (UCPA) office initiates and manages public and media relations efforts locally, nationally, and internationally to promote and increase awareness of a wide range of university research, events, and initiatives.
Last year, UCPA’s Publications office, which provides print, Web, and new media strategies and produces a variety of marketing, advertising, print, display, and digital media materials, completed more than 500 projects on behalf of UC San Diego clients. In addition to their oversight of brand identity for the campus, UCPA and Publications staff played a leadership role in the redesign and future launch of the main UCSD campus Web site. UCPA has also made great strides in advancing a major messaging and marketing initiative designed to enhance the profile of the UC San Diego brand and increase levels of support for the university.
UCPA’s Advocacy staff work with a campus-wide committee of active and committed advocates who can speak out on behalf of UC San Diego issues and projects, and network with various industry, trade, and community representatives to increase the effectiveness of governmental relations activities. In FY 2006–2007, government relations staff played a key role in San Diego’s selection as the recipient of a $29 million award to create a blueprint for digital infrastructure that will allow ocean observatories to collect, process, and transmit data twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox continued to strengthen the university’s presence in the San Diego community through discussions with various business and opinion leaders in the African-American, Asian, Chicano/Latino, women’s, and LGBT communities. In cooperation with UCSD Admissions and Financial Aid, the chancellor launched a series of presentations to high school students, their families, and teachers to encourage pursuit of higher education at a UC campus as a path to a rewarding career. The chancellor’s strategy focused on enhancing UC San Diego’s mission of education, research, and public service by linking members of various communities to the university’s many resources. When community, state, national, and global leaders visit the campus, it’s up to UCPA’s Special Events and Protocol unit to make the event exceptional. Major events included Al Gore, who brought his global warming message to campus when he delivered An Inconvenient Truth to an audience of 4,000, and a Moores UCSD Cancer Center luncheon featuring Katie Couric. Last year’s 100-plus events also included a university-wide open house that drew nearly 10,000 attendees.
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“To our 100,000 donors, I’d like to say thank you…you started it!” UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said enthusiastically at the conclusion of The Campaign for UCSD: Imagine What’s Next, the university’s $1 billion fundraising effort. “Your support created the momentum that will ensure excellence at UC San Diego now, and in the future.”
UCSD is the region’s first university to top this ambitious fundraising milestone, and one of the youngest in the nation to do so. UC San Diego’s campaign kicked off seven years ago with a $20 million gift from University of California Regent John Moores, and his wife, Rebecca, to build the Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center. The effort concluded with a $34 million gift for cancer research—a bequest to the UCSD School of Medicine by physician George Ury. This is the largest planned gift in the university’s history, and one that helped UCSD surpass its fundraising goal nearly two months ahead of its scheduled June 30, 2007, conclusion.
Another milestone gift made during the campaign was the nation’s largest individual gift to an engineering school. Former faculty member and QUALCOMM Incorporated co-founder Irwin Jacobs, and his wife, Joan, gave $110 million to the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering to build the school’s endowment and provide student scholarships, graduate fellowships, and faculty support.
In addition to bolstering research and medical advances, donors to The Campaign for UCSD also gave generously in a variety of campus areas to fund the academic excellence of UC San Diego, and help enhance our ability to educate exemplary students and attract renowned faculty.
Of the 100,000 total campaign donors, 51 percent were friends of the university, 28 percent were alumni, and 14 percent were parents. Corporations, foundations, and organizations represented the remaining 7 percent.