May 6, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Pennsylvania State University, in University Park, has announced a campaign to raise $1-billion by June 30, 2003.
ALSO SEE:
Billion-Dollar Campaign Update
That makes it the 13th American higher-education institution currently seeking $1-billion or more.
All 24 branches of the university will participate in “A Grand Destiny: The Penn State Campaign,” which has raised $557-million since July 1996. The primary purposes of the campaign are to aid undergraduate and graduate students, to pay for faculty positions, and to start new academic and community-service programs.
Penn State’s previous foray into conducting a comprehensive fund drive concluded in 1990. That campaign raised $352-million over six years.
The university that has set the largest goal reported last month that it is within a sliver of reaching its mark. Columbia University, in New York, needs roughly $20-million to meet a $2.2-billion goal and dwarf the $1.7-billion raised by Yale University for its capital campaign, which ended in 1997. Harvard University has eclipsed Yale as well, although Harvard needs to raise approximately $100-million by the end of this year to meet its goal of $2.1-billion.
Besides Yale, five other universities — Cornell, New York, and Stanford Universities as well as the Universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania — also have successfully completed campaigns with billion-dollar goals.
In addition, the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York has completed a campaign that raised more than $1-billion.
The number of institutions seeking $1-billion is likely to grow when two universities announce dollar goals for new campaigns.
The University of Minnesota and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are in the “quiet” phases of raising funds for capital campaigns and are widely believed to be seeking at least $1-billion apiece.
