IU's private donations jump

IU has claimed another national title as its been named the No. 1 public university in the nation regarding the amount of money it receives from the private sector. The annual ranking compiled by the Council for Aid to Education, compares 2001 fiscal year results for 960 colleges and universities in the U.S. IU skyrocketed in ranking this year, jumping from seventh last year to first this year among all public universities and from 19th to seventh among all universities. \nThis year, IU was the benefactor of $300.9 million in private support. \nThe reason for the upward bound is a product of many different factors, said Barbara Coffman of the IU Foundation. The most obvious of these is the support received from the Lily Endowment in fiscal year 2001 for the Life Sciences Initiative. The $105 million dollar gift was a major investment in the quality of IU as an educational institution, said IU President Myles Brand. \n"The gift from the Lily Endowment of $105 million was a considered investment in the ability of IU, with other partners, to be a driver of economic development and quality of life in the state," Brand said in a press release.\nWith the visibility of the campus increasing, the IU Foundation was able to receive the support it needed from volunteers, in the form of grants and contracts usually designated for faculty and research projects, Coffman said.\n"The foundation itself has fund raisers, but all the different schools individually have fundraisers as well," Coffman said. "They all work very hard together with the foundation to raise money for the University."\nApproximately 100,000 individual alumni and friends, corporations and foundations contributed monetary gifts to IU.\n"I think it's a credit to our faculty and the efforts of the IU Foundation, President Brand and others," said Bill Stephan, vice president for public affairs in government relations. "It doesn't happen by accident."\nThese donated funds barely cushion the burden imposed on the University by the state's recent cuts in funding.\n"We are very fortunate in the private sector," Coffman said. "Lots of people love IU and want to make contributions to the campus in the interest of making it successful."\nBut as she noted, these contributions are almost always ear-marked for specific purposes and cannot be used in the areas where IU is financially in need.\n"About 90 to 95 percent of the gifts we receive are designated to specific purposes," Coffman said. "It's not money that you can just take and use for anything."\nStephan agreed.\n"We don't have complete discretion as to how those monies will be used," he said. "Where we are hurt is the operating support that it takes to run the University; to keep the lights on and the heat on -- the day to day expenses."\nHe added that if IU doesn't attain the needed funding from the state, it will impact the University's ability to continue to be a quality institution. \n"We can't raise that kind of money from a private institution because they normally have interest in one specific area and want to know that their donation will help specific areas flourish," Stephan said.\nMost of the donations take shape in the forms of scholarships for graduate and undergraduate students as well as grants and projects for faculty members, designed to attract outstanding faculty and retain the current staff.