Casey: ‘It Is DePauw’s Moment’
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowDePauw University has launched the public phase of a $300 million fundraising campaign. President Brian Casey says it is “expensive to do what we do,” and The Campaign For DePauw will make the school available to more students. He says creation of The DePauw Trust is a “multi-generational effort” to increase access to the university. The campaign will also help fund projects including a major renovation of the university's main library and the construction of a career center. Casey outlined the effort during a Studio(i) interview with Inside INdiana Business Host Gerry Dick.
October 3, 2014
News Release
Greencastle, Ind. — President Brian W. Casey announced today that DePauw University has launched a $300 million comprehensive fundraising campaign—The Campaign for DePauw—that will seek new funds to support the University's academic programs, financial aid efforts, student preparation programs and an array of campus improvements.
“This is an historic moment for a college with a very long and storied history,” said Casey. “Those of us who love DePauw and have been transformed by its people, programs and power for almost two centuries have an opportunity to make certain that the qualities that make this college uniquely transformational will become even stronger and available to new generations of students.
“It is DePauw's moment, and it will take the participation of a great many of our loyal alumni and friends to meet the challenge we are setting today. I am confident we will rise to the challenge and, as a result, that DePauw will ascend as a college known across the state, nation and the world as a place that changes lives.”
At a kick-off celebration this evening on the lawn of historic East College, the President joined Campaign Co-Chairs Sarah R. Wallace '76 and R. David Hoover '67 along with approximately 300 alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends of the University to officially launch The Campaign for DePauw. During this evening's program, the National Campaign Committee announced that, as of the time of the formal launch, the University was approximately two-thirds of the way to its goal, with just over $200 million in campaign commitments made thus far.
“This campaign represents a specific opportunity for DePauw to take its place among the nation's great small colleges and Universities,” said Wallace, who recently “As alumni, this is a place that we love, a place that has shaped us. We have an opportunity, and an obligation, to ensure that DePauw's combination of intellectual challenge and its legacy of preparing leaders remains available for students today and for generations to come.”
“At the very core of DePauw are students who are transformed through a combination of dedicated faculty, small classes, and countless opportunities for leadership,” added Hoover. “This campaign is about making investments today that will ensure that those opportunities remain at the core of the DePauw experience. And, of course, it is about ensuring this transformational form of education remains accessible to promising students, regardless of their family's financial circumstance.”
The Campaign for DePauw's goals include:
Raising funds to advance the University's academic life.
The University will seek funds to significantly renovate the University's main library, Roy O. West Library, to transform it as a center for 21st Century scholarship.
Components of this effort include the creation of a new Main Reading Room, a Center for Teaching and Learning, and Center for Academic Support, along with endowment to support key library programs.
The University will also seek to invest $25 million in the School of Music's 21st Century Musician Initiative, a comprehensive program designed to prepare students for a rapidly changing, and entrepreneurial, music industry.
Other project goals include support for student-faculty collaboration and research, support for faculty development and scholarship, the addition of new visiting artists and professorships, and new endowed funds to undergird programming in academic departments, along with the McDermond Center for Management and Entrepreneurship, the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media and the Prindle Institute for Ethics, as well as DePauw's Honor Scholar Program and four Fellows Programs in management, media, science research and the environment.
“The hallmarks of a DePauw education have always been dedicated faculty, working with students in small classes, and preparing them to think, write, and embrace the complex problems facing our world today,” added Dave Berque, Professor of Computer Science, Dean of the Academic Life, and Member of the National Campaign Committee.
“Our challenge is to ensure that we are constantly improving how we do that and that we are prepared to do so in a 21st century environment.”
Raising $100 million in new endowment for student financial aid through the creation of The DePauw Trust.
Through The Campaign for DePauw, the University will create The DePauw Trust—a program designed to provide need-based financial aid to the University's most promising students—thereby increasing current endowment for student access by more than 80 percent. The creation of The DePauw Trust reflects the University's long-standing commitment—dating to the University's founding charter—to ensure that a DePauw education is accessible to students regardless of their financial means.
The yield off of this new endowment will build on the nearly $50 million that the University currently awards annually to students in the form of scholarships and financial aid. Its creation will make DePauw accessible to a significantly greater number of high-achieving students with financial need, while guaranteeing—in perpetuity—the continuation of the financial aid the University currently provides in perpetuity.
Timothy H. Ubben '58, who is serving as honorary co-chair of The Campaign for DePauw and whose own philanthropy has focused on providing endowment for student financial aid, added, “Education is incredibly important to students today, particularly to promising students who may not otherwise have an opportunity to attend a college like DePauw. This campaign is about ensuring that those students have an opportunity, and that DePauw prepares them well once they enroll. And to do that, we must enlist the support of our alumni and friends. That is what this campaign is about.”
Raising funds for student engagement and career preparation.
The University will seek funds to strengthen those offices and programs specifically dedicated to help students prepare for lives of purpose and accomplishment after graduating from DePauw. With funds raised in this campaign, the University will construct The Kathryn F. Hubbard Center for Student Engagement within the Memorial Student Union Building, while supporting an array of new programs that guide students at the intersection of the academic and career interests.
Capital and programmatic investments in the Hubbard Center will ensure that it serves as a centralized home for strengthened and comprehensive advising for academic studies, off-campus study, internships, career planning, and prepofessional and graduation school preparation. Goals also include seeking new endowed funds that support student travel and internships, course development, service learning programs, and spiritual life and community development programs.
“Our goal is to ensure that students, from the moment they step on campus, are surrounded by a team of advisors that are committed to helping them shape their DePauw experience so that they are prepared for the world,” said Kathryn F. Hubbard '74, whose gift will support the construction of the Hubbard Center.
“Our goal must be nothing short of ensuring that every student has a four-year plan and that every student is prepared for life after DePauw. That will be our f