Foundation kicks off billion-dollar 'Campaign for Illinois'

It's official: A $1 billion fund-raising campaign is under way at the UI,
with $700 million earmarked for Urbana-Champaign, and $300 million for
Chicago.

The majority of the $1 billion to be realized through "Campaign Illinois"
is designated for endowment in support of endowed chairs and professorships
(75 at Urbana-Champaign and 32 at Chicago), as well as endowed student
scholarships and fellowships, and academic programs.

The UI Foundation, the university's fund-raising arm, announced during last
weekend's annual meeting that slightly more than $350 million has been
raised, of which about $160 million is earmarked for endowment.

The effort has been under way but unannounced since 1991, according to
Campaign Director B.A. Nugent, chief executive officer of the foundation.
The drive is expected to continue through 1998, and will build on current
fund-raising levels, which reached a record of nearly $150 million last
year.

Among the gifts announced Friday:

 * $20 million bequest from Maybelle Leland Swanlund to create the Swanlund
   Endowment. The single largest endowment in the UI, the gift will create
   10 Swanlund endowed chairs in colleges and establish the Swanlund Academic
   Initiatives Endowment, which will support new programs of instruction,
   research and public service and encourage existing programs.
 * A $6 million estate gift from Elizabeth Marie Willett of Santa Barbara,
   Calif., to create an endowment, the Willett Research Initiatives Fund in
   the College of Engineering, which will be used to fund professorships,
   undergraduate and graduate student research through scholarships and
   fellowships, and research activities.
 * A distribution of about $4 million from the estate of Stephen W. and Alice
   H. Benedict of Port Townsend, Wash., to support research in the UI College
   of Medicine.
 * A $2.9 million gift from the Grainger Foundation to assist in the
   development of an Engineering Quadrangle on the north side of campus. The
   latest gift will support landscape elements of the major project.
 * A $1.9 million gift, via a 228-acre Christian County farm and other
   assets, from Dudley C. Smith Jr. of Tryon, N.C., to fund research in the
   College of Agriculture.
 * A $1.5 million bequest from an Elgin couple to provide academic or
   athletic scholarships for students attending the UI from Elgin high
   schools.
 * A $1.5 million bequest from an Alabama businessman to provide merit
   scholarships for students in the College of Commerce and Business
   Administration.
 * UI alumni George and Sarah Pagels of Chicago have made a $1.3 million
   commitment to support the UI Library.
 * A gift of $1 million each from Chicago businessmen Neil Bluhm and Judd
   Malkin to support the Campaign for Commerce. The gift of Bluhm and Malkin,
   childhood friends and Commerce graduates, will be used for the building
   and renovation activities as part of commerce's campaign.
 * An additional $1 million gift from alumni Gary and Carlotta Bielfeldt of
   Peoria to support construction of the Bielfeldt Athletic Administration
   Building. The couple previously committed $5 million for construction of
   the building on a site near the Assembly Hall. Groundbreaking ceremonies
   for the building will be held Friday.
 * $1 million bequest from Alan and Leonarda Laing to provide fellowships to
   encourage studies in the history and preservation of architecture. Alan
   Laing is former professor of architecture.
 * A $500,000 commitment from Ben Jay and Lorelei Rosenthal of Winnetka,
   Ill., to support construction of the West Addition to the Mechanical
   Engineering Laboratory. The South Gallery in the West Addition of the
   Mechanical Engineering Laboratory will house the restored 1878 Tower Clock,
   a seven-foot timepiece originally located in University Hall.
 * A $415,000 estate gift from alumna Dorothy Hussemann Strong to fund
   scholarships in the College of Engineering.
 * A $350,000 gift from Richard and Barbara Faletti of Clarendon Hills to
   endow the Richard and Barbara Faletti Gallery of African Cultures in the
   Spurlock Museum of World Cultures.
 * A $250,000 pledge from 1945 ceramic engineering alumnus Don Hamer to help
   support the department of materials science and engineering's Student
   Instructional Laboratory Center.
 * A $200,000 commitment from International Paper will establish and endow a
   lecture series in chemical engineering as part of the Department of
   Chemical Engineering's Chem E 2000 Campaign.

Private gifts to the UI climbed $16.7 million from fiscal year 1993, a 32
percent jump. Gifts of $68.9 million were received through the foundation
in FY 94, which ended June 30. The foundation brought in $52.2 million in
FY 93, according to Craig Bazzani, vice president for business and finance.
Foundation assets reached $290.2 million of which 77 percent or $222.3
million is invested in endowment funds from which earnings help to support
university programs.