Campaign Rockets Past Halfway Mark to More Than $46 Million

The Students First Campaign has raised more than $46 million, moving well beyond the halfway point in the first 18 months of a $78.2 million campaign for scholarships, fellowships and academic programs.

The $46,462,512 total was reached on Dec. 31. It represents 59.5 percent of the goal and includes UNCG’s largest alumni gift. Through December, cash gifts totaled $22.3 million; pledges, $6.4 million; and planned gifts, $17.8 million.

The announcement came at the Jan. 30 meeting of the campaign steering committee. The campaign total was at $37.6 million in September 2005 and it rose almost $9 million in the year’s final quarter.

“This wonderful total includes gifts from alumni and friends of the University who want to see it continue to expand its ability to serve our students and the state of North Carolina,” UNCG Chancellor Patricia A. Sullivan said.

“Our fund-raising progress to date has been tremendous. This success is evidence that UNCG’s alumni and friends believe in the campaign’s imperatives. They want to help students further their educations, help faculty expand their teaching, research and scholarship, and to create exciting, signature programs like our International Honors College.”

Through December, campaign donors had created:

• six new professorships,

• 78 new undergraduate scholarships,

• 36 program endowments,

• six new graduate fellowships and

• four new student awards programs.

The campaign’s largest gift to date – and the largest ever from an alumna – is a $4 million commitment from 1950 graduate Rebecca A. Lloyd of San Diego, who was raised in Greensboro. The gift will endow UNCG’s new International Honors College, which is being named in honor of her parents, the late Aubrey Paul and Georgia Garrison Lloyd.

“The Students First Campaign has achieved phenomenal success in only 18 months and we’ve gotten great support from alumni and friends,” said campaign co-chair Linda A. Carlisle.

“We are seeing that people love this university and appreciate its intellectual and economic contributions to the state and region. The generosity of our donors will help transform the lives of our students, and we are grateful for their support.”

Updated pledge and gift totals for the campaign’s four imperatives are:

• student support, $23,498,064 million raised – The $51.55 million goal includes $30.6 million for scholarships, $16 million for graduate fellowships, $3.8 million for international education and $1.15 million for UNCG’s signature Communication Across the Curriculum program.

• endowed professorships and faculty development, $5,319,896 million raised – The $7.75 million goal carries $4.2 million for Excellence Professorships, $2.55 million for faculty development and $1 million for Jackson Library.

• exceptional learning environments, $14,408,635 million raised – Major items in the $15.9 million goal are $5 million for academic program support, $2.5 million for the Aycock Auditorium renovation, $3.2 million for the Science Building equipment fund, $1 million for the Chancellor’s New Venture Fund, $1 million for the Weatherspoon Art Museum and $1 million for the Alumni House renovation.

• research and service support, $613,264 raised – Highlights of the $3 million goal are $1 million for the Center for Women’s Health and Wellness, $1 million to support community service internships and service learning, $500,000 for School of Nursing service learning initiatives, and $500,000 for the Institute for Health, Science and Society.

• other unrestricted gifts, $2,622,651.

With “The Impact of One. The Power of Many” as its theme, the Students First Campaign reflects the power that supporters of the campus, acting individually and collectively, can have on the lives of students. The campaign is UNCG’s largest, and phase I will run through 2009 with a goal of $78.2 million.

The two previous drives were The Second Century Campaign for UNCG, completed in 1998, which raised $55.4 million and surpassed its goal of $42.5 million, and the Prospectus III Campaign, which passed its $12 million goal to conclude with $13.5 million in 1984.