Brand: Endowments a 'triumph'

Lauded as "a genuine triumph" by IU President Myles Brand, a seven-year, $504 million fund-raising campaign positions IU first among Big Ten public universities in endowed faculty positions.\nThe campaign -- the largest in IU's history -- increased endowed faculty positions by 178 percent, and it left IU with 333 chairs, professorships and curatorships, also leading Big Ten public institutions.\n"The endowment campaign for IU-Bloomington lays a solid foundation for IU's future," Brand said in a press release. "A strong endowment base enables IU to attract -- and retain -- outstanding faculty. It also allows us to provide scholarships for the nation's brightest graduate and undergraduate students."\nThe campaign, launched in 1994 and concluding last December, nearly doubled endowments for IU students and beat its total goal by $154 million. Student endowments surged during the seven-year stretch, increasing by 74 percent. The campaign total includes gifts and pledges, annual support for current spending and non-government grants.\nOfficials attribute a large part of the campaign's success to faculty and staff contributions exceeding $27 million, the highest "insider" total contribution to a campaign at any public university, according to an IU press release.\nFitting, said James Sherman, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council, because a lot of the endowment campaign funds are geared toward betterment, recruitment and retention of the faculty.\n"(The campaign) that makes a huge difference to both attracting and maintaining faculty," Sherman said. "Anything that increases the resources of the University and is good for the University is also good for the faculty and the whole University community.\n"Bottom line, it's a signal that people love this University and are committed to it."\nAnother significant group of contributors to the campaign were the IU Foundation's board of directors, who, as a group, contributed $78 million to the campaign.\nWhile the completion of the endowment campaign is good news, some -- including Sherman -- are concerned it might effect the debate over higher education funding. The state faces a $923 million shortfall, which will necessitate spending cuts.\nIU Spokeswoman Susan Dillman said now is not the time to lessen the investment in higher education.\n"We would hope legislators would not look at this effort and subtract (funding)," Dillman said. "This is a collaboration, a partnership. We need both private and state funding."\nSherman said IU ranks near the bottom of Big Ten schools in state funding. Along with Purdue -- the other Indiana Big Ten school -- IU has been forced to fight for every penny because of state government shortages. Indiana used to supply 40 to 50 percent of IU's budget, but now it supplies only about 20 percent, he said.\n"You have to make up for it in some way either through grants or private donation," Sherman said. "It becomes more essential here than other public institutions."\nSherman expressed concern that the timing of the campaign's success could hurt IU's budgetary hopes in the Indiana General Assembly.\nHe said once University officials recognize reality and raise private money, legislators appropriate state money elsewhere.