Bolstering the university's endowment is a priority of Campaign Illinois,
the ongoing, $1 billion universitywide fund-raising effort that will conclude
at the end of 1998. Craig Bazzani, UI vice president for business and finance,
announced at the UI Foundation's annual meeting that the campaign total
as of September 30 stood at $710 million.
Campaign Illinois has generated a real surge in private giving to the UI
and the foundation," Bazzani said. "Both the five-year and 10-year
reviews of gifts show that we've established a strong base of private support
-- we're well on our way to reaching our billion-dollar goal."
Also announced at the three-day meeting were fifteen gifts totaling more
than $32 million earmarked for programs at the three UI campuses. Gift made
to the Urbana-Champaign campus include:
-- Companion gifts totaling $7.5 million from Caterpillar Inc. and retired
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lee L. Morgan and his wife, Mary, will
support programs at the Urbana-Champaign campus and the UI at Chicago College
of Medicine at Peoria.
The Morgans' $1.5 million gift will endow the Food and Agribusiness Management
Program, operated jointly in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental
Sciences and in the College of Commerce and Business Administration.
Caterpillar's $6 million gift includes $3.5 million to the Urbana-Champaign
campus to create two endowed chairs -- one in the College of Engineering
and the other in accountancy and business administration in the College
of Commerce and Business Administration -- and an instructional laboratory
for engineering students as well as a Caterpillar Challenger Model 45, a
high-tech tractor equipped with rubber tracks, for use by the department
of agricultural engineering. In addition, Caterpillar made a $2.5 million
gift to the UIC College of Medicine at Peoria.
-- Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting have begun a campaign to raise
$7 to enable the construction of a new building for the college of Commerce
and Business Administration. The new 65,000-square-foot building will be
located directly across from and facing Commerce West. The facility is expected
to house undergraduate classrooms, the academic and executive MBA programs,
the Executive Development Center, Commerce Placement Services and faculty
offices.
-- A $4 million estate gift from Suzanne Allen of Beverly Hills, Calif.
will be shared by the School of Architecture and the School of Music, both
in the College of Fine and Applied Arts. In addition to honoring Allen,
the gift is also a tribute to her late husband, a noted architect.
A fund in their name will support architectural students participating in
the Study Abroad Program at Versailles, France, and will bring a distinguished
architect to the Versailles campus. The Suzanne and William Allen Distinguished
Professorships in Music will allow the School of Music to initially fund
four music scholars.
-- A $3.7 million commitment from Charles U. and Marguerite K. Kring of
San Jose, Calif. will finance the Charles U. Kring Chair in Civil Engineering
and an endowment for scholarships and fellowships for civil engineering
students.
-- New gifts of more than $3.5 million from Eleutherios "Ted"
Houvouras and his wife, Phyllis, of Lexington, Mass., will provide for an
endowed chair and related program support in the department of chemical
engineering in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
-- George and Ann Fisher, of Pittsford, N.Y. have made gift commitments
totaling $2 million. Their gift will establish distinguished engineering
professorships in their name and honoring Fisher's parents, Ralph and Catherine
Fisher, both UI alums.
-- A $1.25 million gift from Jim Benson of Greenwich, Conn., will establish
the James M. Benson Chair in Public Issues and Civic Leadership in the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
-- A $750,000 gift from the Ford Motor Company Fund will construct and equip
the Ford Concurrent Design and Manufacturing Laboratory in the mechanical
engineering laboratory. The lab will allow students to get hands-on experience
in design and fabricating prototypes for their projects in design and manufacturing
course work, independent study projects and student society projects.
-- David Manthey, a Chicago Sun-Times sportswriter and copy editor, and
his wife, Diane, a retired teacher, have made a $750,000 commitment to the
David A. and Diane A. Manthey Journalism Scholarship Fund. their gift will
provide scholarships to undergraduate print journalism students.
-- Walter Robb has made a six-figure gift in support of the Harry G. Drickamer
Fund, which will be used for graduate fellowships in chemical engineering,
chemistry and physics -- the three departments in which Professor Emeritus
Drickamer holds appointments.
-- A $375,000 gift commitment from Robert and Grace Reuss of Naperville,
Ill., creates the Robert P. and Grace K. Reuss Internship in Philanthropy,
an endowment that will allow the UI Foundation to support interns to study,
in residency, the multifaceted aspects of higher education.
-- H.S. "Hank" Magnuski and his wife, Cynthia Jose, have made
a $300,000 gift to the department of electrical and computer engineering,
establishing the Henry Magnuski Scholar Fund for Outstanding Young Faculty
Members. The gift was made in memory of Hank Magnuski's father, a longtime
employee of Motorola, who developed circuits for the Walkie Talkie as well
as other projects.
-- Gifts totaling more than $200,000 from Marjorie Hall Thulin of Glencoe,
Ill., will support the Program for the Study of Religion in the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Marjorie Hall Thulin Endowed Fund will
be the cornerstone of an effort to establish a program in religion and contemporary
culture on the Urbana-Champaign campus.
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