Private Support for UCSB in 2006-07 Reached $70.8 Million, Bringing Campus's Campaign Total to More Than $430 Million

The Campaign for UC Santa Barbara, the campus's first comprehensive private fund-raising effort, has generated more than $430 million toward a goal of $500 million for priority projects and initiatives across the academic disciplines.

Of that total, UCSB alumni and friends contributed $70.8 million in gifts and pledges during the 2006-07 fiscal year for student support, teaching, research, and capital projects—an increase of nearly 30 percent over the previous year.

"We are so grateful for the extraordinarily generous support given to The Campaign for UC Santa Barbara in the past year," said UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to the trustees of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation as well as our alumni, parents, friends, and members of our own faculty and staff. Their generosity helps us to strengthen our top-notch faculty, enhance opportunities for our talented and deserving students, improve facilities, and provide additional support for innovative teaching and research. UC Santa Barbara's world-class stature and sustained rise in reputation owe a great deal to the shared vision of our donors, to whom we offer our sincere and profound thanks."

Since the inception of the campaign in 2000, UCSB's endowment—now estimated at $190 million—has grown by $115 million.

Endowment gifts are important to the future of the campus because they provide ongoing support for research and instruction, scholarships and fellowships, innovative programs, and facilities.

Forty-four new endowed professorships have been established during the campaign to help build and support the teaching and research of the university's distinguished faculty, bringing UCSB's total to 68.

Similarly, 107 new fellowships have been created to attract and support outstanding graduate students.

Last year's success toward the campaign goal was boosted by some exceptionally generous donations.

Virgil Elings, a former UCSB physics professor, and Betty Elings Wells contributed a total of $12.5 million to support pioneering research at the California NanoSystems Institute.

In recognition of their gifts, the new state-of-the-art building that is home to the prestigious institute was named Elings Hall.

In addition, eight endowed chairs were created with gifts totaling nearly $9 million.

They included the Peter J. Clarke Chair for the Director of the California NanoSystems Institute; four Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Academic Initiative Professorships; the Leadership Chair in Computer Science; and the Veeco Chair in Engineering and Science.

UCSB is undergoing an unprecedented era of new construction to build premier facilities equal to the growing reputation of the campus as a leading research university.

As Chancellor Yang has said, "A world-class university must have a physical presence to match."

Construction has begun on the privately funded Carsey-Wolf Center for Film, Television, and New Media, part of a state-funded academic building complex for the College of Letters and Science and the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education (GGSE) that will house the new Eli and Edythe L. Broad Center for Asperger Research and the enhanced Koegel Autism Research and Training Center.

A dynamic new eastern entrance to UCSB with a gateway arch named for benefactors Jeff Henley '66, and his wife, Judy, featuring a traffic circle, new lighting, and landscaping, all made possible by campaign donations, is also under way.

Furthermore, the Mosher Alumni House recently opened to welcome returning graduates and visitors to UCSB.

More than $11.8 million already has been raised for the $12.5 million building project.

During 2006-07, individual gifts increased by more than 4 percent over the previous year reaching 21,000, despite a small decline in gifts from alumni.

Although unrestricted giving was down slightly, support for instruction, campus improvement, and academic departments increased substantially.

Corporate and foundation support rose by more than 50 percent to $35.5 million.

This was due primarily to a number of large corporate donations, including more than $10.1 million for UCSB's new Solid State Lighting and Energy Center from Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Rohm Company, Ltd, Stanley Electric Company, Ltd, and four anonymous corporate donors.

To address California's high school dropout crisis, a consortium consisting of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Walter S. Johnson Foundation contributed $850,000 to establish the California Dropout Research Project in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education.

Among the other large gifts to the campus was a $1 million gift to intercollegiate athletics, of which $600,000 was unrestricted support for UCSB's NCAA-winning men's soccer program.

Arts & Lectures received $1.3 million from a growing number of generous benefactors.

Five donors each pledged $100,000 over four years to build a foundation of support that is critical to providing exceptional public programming.

Planned gifts amounted to more than $4 million and included a bequest from the late Howard Fenton, an emeritus UCSB professor of art, for student endowments in art and art history.

In addition, a new Center in Demography in the Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research was established with an anonymous multi-million-dollar gift.

"The highlights of this fund-raising year included significant growth of endowments for eminent faculty and support for talented graduate students," said Gary Greinke, associate vice chancellor for development.

With only 28 percent of UCSB's operating budget provided by the state, private giving is a critical component of UCSB's academic excellence, said John M. Wiemann, vice chancellor for institutional advancement, of which development is a part.

"UCSB's students and faculty will benefit from the growing generosity of our alumni, parents, and friends for years to come," he said.