University of Chicago Receives $2 Billion Towards $4.5 Billion Fund Raising Goal

Deborah Bayliss | As of Wednesday, May 14, 2014

“A key factor in the board’s unanimous vote to launch a ($4.5 billion) campaign was President [Robert] Zimmer’s intention to serve at least through the end of the decade,”-- Andrew Alper, chairman of University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees.
“A key factor in the board’s unanimous vote to launch a ($4.5 billion) campaign was President [Robert] Zimmer’s intention to serve at least through the end of the decade,”-- Andrew Alper, chairman of University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees.

Administrators at the University of Chicago (U of C) are in "full-swing" fund raising mode as they forge ahead towards a $4.5 billion goal. U of C officials announced recently that $2 billion was quietly raised in the first phase of the effort by donations from friends and alumni of the school. Monies raised will, according to U of C officials, ensure that the university maintains its place among world leaders in research and education.

The public phase of the fund raising campaign will formally launch this fall, is expected to conclude in 2019 and is the most ambitious effort in the University’s history.

“A key factor in the board’s unanimous vote to launch a campaign was President [Robert] Zimmer’s intention to serve at least through the end of the decade,” said Andrew Alper, chairman of University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees. “The University of Chicago is enjoying ever greater global eminence under Bob Zimmer’s leadership, and we are lucky to have him as our president. The board’s enthusiastic support of our leadership and momentum is evident in the generosity of our trustees, trustee emeriti and their families, who together have donated over $750 million to the campaign thus far, representing more than a third of the money raised during the quiet phase of the campaign,” added Alper.

Funds will support faculty and researchers in the fields of inquiry, educational opportunities for students at all levels, and innovative programs to enhance the University’s local and global reach and impact.

“The University is an international leader in enabling scholars from across disciplines to develop and test great ideas,” said Joseph Neubauer, a vice chair of the University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees. “…Among other campaign priorities is the Institute for Molecular Engineering, which is defining a new discipline and seeking solutions to key challenges such as the need for clean water through new developments in nanoscale science. The University’s new affiliation with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., combines with the University’s operation of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab to put UChicago scientists at a unique nexus of institutions with international reach.”

In the biological sciences and at the University of Chicago Medicine, the campaign will support exploration of basic biological phenomena, computational methods in biology and medicine, and new interventions to treat cancer, research in digestive diseases, diabetes, immunology and transplantation and will also support increased engagement with the University’s 177,000 alumni in 153 countries.

Investments in the College include enhanced support for the Core curriculum, expanded study-abroad opportunities, new career advancement tracks, construction of a new, 800-bed residence hall on the north end of campus, and continued growth in financial aid, particularly in Odyssey Scholarships; the Chicago Innovation Exchange in Hyde Park, scheduled to open in late 2014, which helps researchers and entrepreneurs translate discoveries into products and companies; and the Urban Education Institute which educates South Side students at four Charter School campuses.

“We are stewards of a University that has accomplished extraordinary things in a little more than a century. It is our job to ensure that it remains true to its values and that we leave it stronger still, by supporting a faculty whose work is of the greatest originality, depth and impact, and an outstanding student body who will leave the University enriched by their experience and go on to have impact on virtually every field of human endeavor in our nation and around the world,” said Zimmer. “With many new initiatives underway or in the planning stages, in every part of the University, our campaign priorities express and support the ambition of our academic community.”

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