UC San Diego Becomes Region’s First University
to Top $1 Billion in a Fundraising Campaign
100,000 donors to The Campaign for UCSD help
achieve milestone that will ensure educational excellence,
and continue local, national and global impact of leading research university

June 8, 2007

By Laura Margoni

From left to right: Arts and Humanities Dean Michael Bernstein, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and philanthropist Conrad Prebys, whose $6 million gift will help make UC San Diego’s new, state-of-the-art Music Center one of the best small concert halls in the world and a community cultural resource.

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) today announced that recent gifts to the campus have taken its fundraising total over the $1 billion campaign goal set in July 2000, nearly a month ahead of schedule.  The Campaign for UCSD: Imagine What’s Next will conclude on June 30, 2007.

UC San Diego’s fundraising initiative kicked off seven years ago with a $20 million gift from University of California Regent and campaign co-chair John Moores, with his wife Rebecca, to build the Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center.  A $15 million gift from university supporters Jerome and Miriam Katzin jumpstarted construction, and established a new entity within the center—the Katzin Research Laboratories.  Dedicated in 2005, the Moores Cancer Center has brought visibility and resources to the region as a recognized leader in the battle against cancer.

Dedicated in 2005, The Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center has brought visibility and resources to the region as a recognized leader in the battle against cancer, thanks to a $20 million gift from University of California Regent John Moores and his wife Rebecca, and a $15 million gift from longtime university supporters Jerome and Miriam Katzin.

The Campaign for UCSD launched with a gift for a cancer center, and concludes with a $34 million gift for cancer research—a bequest to the UCSD School of Medicine by physician George Ury.  This is the largest bequest in the university’s history, and one that helped UCSD surpass its fundraising goal.  Ury’s wish was to establish an endowed fund for cancer research.

“All of the donors to the campaign have contributed to increasing the academic excellence of UC San Diego and helped enhance our ability to educate exemplary students and attract renowned faculty who save lives through cancer-related research, clinical trials, prevention programs, community outreach and patient care,” observed UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox.  “Dr. Ury’s gift to UCSD’s School of Medicine provides the perfect capstone to our campaign.  Both the beginning and closing gifts are from individuals committed to helping us find cures for our most challenging diseases.”

To date, more than $1.01 billion in private support has been designated by UCSD donors to fund scholarships and fellowships; expand academic programs; fund groundbreaking research; support faculty, including recruitment and retention; enhance vital services, such as patient care; develop new buildings and renovate existing facilities; and provide a pool of flexible funds to enable UC San Diego to meet its highest priority needs.

Chancellor Fox expressed gratitude to the more than 100,000 individuals and organizations that made the history-making campaign an overwhelming success.  “When we launched The Campaign for UCSD, even our fundraising consultants said that a $1 billion campaign might be too ambitious for a university not yet 50 years old,” noted Fox.  “But with the support of generous alumni, parents, faculty and staff, students and friends, we achieved the extraordinary—and we will continue to deliver the local impact, national influence and global reach of the region’s leading research university.”

Donors to the Campaign for UCSD funded a range of critical campus needs through current use gifts and endowments, including contributions for student scholarships and graduate fellowships.

Added QUALCOMM Incorporated co-founder and campaign cabinet co-chair, Irwin Jacobs, “Today we celebrate the success of The Campaign for UCSD, which underscores the importance of this university to our community.  Through their commitment to higher education, donors have ensured the future of San Diego and the region’s contributions to the nation, and the world.”  During the campaign, longtime UCSD donors Irwin and Joan Jacobs contributed $110 million to the Jacobs School of Engineering and major funding for the Jacobs Scholars and Fellows program and the Center for Pacific Economies at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, among other gifts.

Donors to the Campaign for UCSD funded a range of critical campus needs through current use gifts and endowments, including contributions for student support.  Sarahi Loya, a recipient of the Hispanic Scholarship Council Scholarship and an Amylin Scholar, expressed her gratitude to donors for making possible the level of education she has been afforded at UCSD.  “Without their help, I could not have attended UCSD,” said Loya.  “Due to financial difficulties, my parents were only able to attain a sixth grade education in Mexico.  Yet now I am on my way to a dream my parents could never envision—I am applying to medical school.”

Following are highlights and fundraising firsts for The Campaign for UCSD

• The market value of the UC San Diego endowment—funds that generate income in perpetuity—doubled to over $485 million, funding a wide variety of donor-designated needs ranging from student scholarships to faculty recruitment, infrastructure enhancement to research support;
• A leadership gift of $10 million from Richard and Maria (Gaby) Sulpizio is supporting the construction of a state-of-the-art facility that will centralize UCSD’s cutting-edge patient care and research activities in heart and vascular disease and stroke management;
• A $2.5 million contribution for an endowed faculty chair by Ellen Revelle, wife of UCSD founder Roger Revelle, will be used to recruit an outstanding climate scientist for Scripps Institution of Oceanography, one of the world’s foremost climate change research institutions;
• A $6 million gift from philanthropist Conrad Prebys will help make UC San Diego’s new state-of-the-art  Music Center, which will include one of the best small concert halls in the world, a community cultural resource;
• UCSD’s Rady School of Management moved to a permanent home on campus specifically designed to encourage the interaction of the school with the wider San Diego community, funded by private support that included a $30 million gift from Ernest Rady and the Rady Family Foundation, and a $5 million gift from Roberta and Malin Burnham;
• Longtime university friend and honorary campaign co-chair Audrey S. Geisel contributed $1 million to establish San Diego’s first librarianship, which will enhance the resources and services of UC San Diego libraries used by students, staff and San Diego residents;
• Local philanthropist Pauline Foster’s gift established the university’s first $5 million endowed chair at the Rady School of Management, supporting programs such as the biennial Stanley Foster Symposium, featuring topical executive level speakers focused on important issues of our time, open to students, faculty and the general community;
• A $30 million gift by The Skaggs Research Institute helped to secure the future of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the only public pharmacy school located in Southern California;
• Alumnus Gary E. Jacobs ’79 and his wife, Jerri-Ann made a $1 million gift to support of graduate fellowships, representing the largest single gift ever made to the Division of Social Sciences by an alumnus;
• The first Chancellor’s Chair Challenge netted $5 million to fund 15 critically needed endowed faculty chairs to assist with faculty recruitment and retention efforts, bringing to 53 the total number of chairs established during the campaign;
• Scientists at UCSD, partnering with the J. Craig Venter Institute, developed the first cyberinfrastructure customized to decipher the genetic code of marine microbes, thanks to a $24.5 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation—previously, researchers had trouble finding computer servers that could handle all that data;
• The Shiley Eye Center—home of the region’s first macular degeneration outreach program—was established by UCSD supporters Donald and Darlene Shiley, who contributed an additional gift of $5 million for a much-needed expansion of the facility;
• A $7.5 million gift from Fred Kavli and his foundation established the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, one of the first examples of UCSD’s commitment to interdisciplinary work by engaging scientists from more than 20 different departments and perspectives;
• With leadership gifts from Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas, Carol Vassiliadis and the Nicholas family, as well as support from San Diego’s Greek Community, UCSD is on track to become one of the first U.S. universities with endowed faculty chairs in all three major eras of Greek history;
• The Leichtag Family Foundation Biomedical Research Building, named in recognition of a $12 million gift from the Leichtag Family Foundation, is the university’s first major new biomedical research facility for the Health Sciences in almost ten years.
• Of the 100,000 total campaign donors, 51 percent are friends of the university, 28 percent are alumni and 14 percent are parents.  Corporations, foundations and organizations represent the remaining seven percent

Fox concluded that UCSD has met important funding goals for research, academic programs and health sciences during the course of the campaign.  She noted, however, that more remains to be done to support the university’s efforts to recruit and retain faculty and to finance undergraduate and graduate scholarships and student life initiatives.  “But for now,” said Fox, “we have much to celebrate.”

For more information giving to UCSD, please call 858-534-1610, or visit www.campaign.ucsd.edu.

 

Media Contacts:
Laura Margoni, UCSD Development Communications, (858) 822-2485
Leslie Bruce, MJE Marketing, (619) 682-3841