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Ohio University Fundraising Campaign Has Reach 75 Percent Of Goal
< < Back toOhio University's President says they are 75 percent to goal on the capital campaign with four years left.
Roderick McDavis made the remarks during a speech to the Board of Trustees this afternoon at Columbus State Community College.
The capital campaign fundraising goal is $450 million.
McDavis says they've already raised $343.7 million through transformational gifts, like the recent $150 million gift from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation to the medical college.
Now, McDavis says they're entering the individual college phase of the project.
"Focusing on scholarships, focusing on professorships and chairs really begins to get at the heart of the campaign which is to build the endowment, to grow the endowment. So that we will be able to give scholarships to students in the future, that we'll be able to hire faculty at high levels in terms of professorships and chairs," says McDavis.
McDavis says the next step is to extend the campaign to the roughly 200,000 alumni through regional meetings.
He says the goal is to finish strong and exceed the goal, if possible.
During today's meeting, the Board of Trustees also learned about plans for building improvements and options for paying for it.
Vice President of Finance and Administration Stephen Golding says a capital improvement plan will be presented to the board in November.
He says it will make recommendations on how to address the capital needs backlog.
Board Chair C. Robert Kidder says building improvements on the Athens campus is a complex issue that needs a comprehensive solution.
"This is a pretty complex topic. Not only is it the core academic facilities that were being discussed at this morning's meeting, but it also involves capital required for the residential rehab or catch-up as well as keep-up on the residential buildings and also involves what are we going to do with the heating plant and our whole energy usage," says Kidder.
Both Kidder and McDavis say one of the big questions is what building improvement projects have to be done soon and which ones can wait.