HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Campaign Halfway to Its Goal

With $1.1 billion raised as of the end of March, The University Campaign has surpassed the halfway point.

"Across the University, the effects of the campaign are already becoming clear," says President Neil L. Rudenstine. "We have new faculty in many of the Schools, new scholarship and fellowship funds that benefit our students, new directions in research throughout the arts and sciences and the professions, and new and renovated facilities for members of the University community.

"The halfway point is an important milestone, but we have an even more challenging half still ahead of us," Rudenstine continues. "I am immensely grateful for the support that has taken us this far, and confident that the collective energy and commitment of everyone involved in the campaign will keep us strongly on course toward our goal."

Range of initiatives attracting support

While campaign commitments are funding a variety of initiatives across the University -- from endowments for the Harvard College football and baseball coaches to a new fund for not-for-profit management that supports the Business School's initiative on social enterprise -- four areas stand out: financial aid, faculty support, research, and infrastructure.

Financial aid a priority

Most Schools hope to raise substantial sums for financial aid during the campaign and alumni and friends are responding with gifts for new scholarship and fellowship funds.

At the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), more than 120 alumni and friends have established new endowed scholarship funds or added to existing funds. These gifts alone will provide scholarship aid for about 350 undergraduates annually.

Several new public service fellowships will support Kennedy School of Government students, whose subsequent career choices often do not pay enough to make tolerable the burden of repaying hefty school loans.

Thanks to a significant gift to the Loeb Fellowship Program for Advanced Environmental Studies, the Graduate School of Design will grant postprofessional awards for midcareer professionals desiring to pursue independent study at Harvard.

The Business School Class of '70 is designating their $7.5 million reunion gift to a fund for fellowship support, with preference given to students from developing countries.

And a recent bequest to the Divinity School enhances its ability to offer students financial aid.

New scholars joining Faculties

At all the Schools, Harvard is adding new faculty to improve student-faculty ratios and expand the fields of study that Harvard can cover both in the classroom and in research.

For instance, recently established is an endowed professorship in education with a cross-cultural perspective at the Graduate School of Education. An endowed chair in learning and teaching will also complement the School's existing breadth.

Six Harvard College Professorships at the FAS will help increase the number of teachers (the FAS hopes to create 40 new faculty positions by the end of the campaign), recognize and encourage excellent teaching, and ultimately reduce the pressure on a faculty expected to be not merely the best scholars but also the best teachers.

Four new endowed professorships have been established at the Kennedy School, including the Albert Carnesale Professorship in Leadership and the Adams Professorship in Political Leadership and Democratic Values, a chair in environmental policy, and another in social policy.

And at the Law School, 15 new professorships have been established. The core faculty now includes more than 70 professors. Currently, 11 women are tenured professors or tenure-track assistant professors, an all-time high.

Support for research

Campaign gifts are funding new research programs, new buildings and laboratories for research, new faculty conducting research, and new opportunities for students to participate in faculty research projects.

The Medical School has received a new grant to support research on the interface of neurobiology and cell biology, one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas in biomedical science. Another area receiving funding is research into Alzheimer's disease. Several gifts, including one to establish the Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Center for the Study of Neurodegenerative Disorders, are allowing Medical School faculty to concentrate on developing a simple but definitive diagnostic eye test for Alzheimer's disease.

Distinctive research programs recently established at the Law School include the Program on International Financial Systems, the European Law Research Center, the Korean Legal Studies Program, and the Center for Islamic Legal Studies. The John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business is also newly founded.

Besides benefiting from studying under faculty who are involved in groundbreaking research, students are getting to collaborate with faculty in their research. For example, grants to the Graduate School of Education are being used by doctoral students to strengthen their research methodology and by professors to develop research apprenticeships for doctoral candidates.

Bricks and mortar

The renovation of Memorial Hall is complete, providing undergraduates a grand locale in which to eat, socialize, and work in study groups. Both Annenberg Hall and the Loker Commons have proved popular since their recent opening. The project to create a humanities center is now under way.

Also under construction is the François-Xavier Bagnoud Building for laboratories, classrooms, and a center on health and human rights at the School of Public Health. Here, faculty will explore links between health and human rights and conduct research into public health issues.

At the Law School, a new classroom and faculty office building -- Hauser Hall -- has gone up. A newly renovated building for the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center now houses the largest private legal-services provider for low-income and indigent people in Massachusetts and the largest among law schools in the country.

Research facilities have been enhanced at the Medical School, where the newly renovated Isabelle and Leonard Goldenson Biomedical Research Building is home to 30 laboratories in the neurosciences.

Interfaculty collaboration

The success of cross-School endeavors is another campaign highlight. At the kickoff nearly two years ago, President Rudenstine underscored his desire to foster collaboration among the Faculties. Since then, there have been increasingly numerous exchanges -- formal and informal -- that benefit teaching and research across the University.

The progress of the interfaculty initiatives is especially noteworthy, not only in stimulating interdisciplinary research but also in promoting curricular innovation.

For example, the initiative on the environment has helped to create a new Environmental Science and Public Policy concentration, which has already become one of the more heavily subscribed scientific fields of study among undergraduates.

Similarly, the Mind/Brain/Behavior (M/B/B) initiative has led to the introduction of M/B/B tracks in four fields of concentration at Harvard College: biology, computer science, history and science, and psychology.

Gifts from many sources

Highlights of the campaign to date include magnificent gifts of $20 million or more from John L. Loeb '24, LLD '71 (hon.), and Frances Lehman Loeb for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Design, the School of Public Health, the Memorial Church, and the Loeb Drama Center; from Leonard H. Goldenson '27, LLB '30, and Isabelle Goldenson for Harvard Medical School; from Walter H. Annenberg for Harvard College; and from Albina du Boisrouvray for the School of Public Health.

Gifts are coming from a diversity of sources not seen before this campaign. For instance, alumni and friends outside the United States have contributed 11 percent of gifts of more than $1 million. West Coast alumni have contributed 10 percent of these significant commitments. Younger alumni are also supporting The University Campaign in greater numbers than ever before -- 27 percent of million-dollar-plus gifts have come from those who graduated after 1966. And gifts from nonalumni represent 25 percent of gifts of $1 million or more.