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Capital Campaign

SFspidur

SFspidur

Spider's Club
Gold Member
May 5, 2003
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So in a day when our peers are launching capital campaigns with goals of up to $500 million, UR has announced its latest campaign for $150 million, $115 million of which has already been received or pledged.

Granted, it's a short public phase (20 months) and its targeted at completing the current strategic plan, but this seems like such an odd "mini-campaign".

And the only bit I've seen on it is a quick blurb from the RTD a couple of days ago saying "has launched"...nothing on UR's website or anywhere else. I have to believe that more is coming from UR, but so far this looks like a bad joke.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/ur-announces-million-campaign/article_94fef0fc-5a1d-530e-8a82-6579042799b2.html
 
Wasn't the original discussion to raise in the range of $265MM? If so, what happened? The blurb seems to cut out any construction on campus and leaves only the scholarships, internships etc.
 
Attended the kick off for The Campaign for Richmond last Friday night. It was reported that $118 million of the $150 million goal has been reached. The money is to be used for creating a summer Fellowship program for internship or research projects, building a $20 million Center for admission and Career Services which will help attract the best students possible, bolstering scholarship support, and engaging a larger range of donars with emphasis on annual giving which includes The Spider Club. The Center for admission and Creer Services will be on the Westhampton side.
 
we really have no need for further construction, "new" buildings on this campus, we build gorgeous brick ones but we need to retain our trees, landscaping, free space, pleeeeeeeze
 
Well Admissions and Alumni / Career are busting at the seems over in Sarah Burnet. All this construction will end up being part of the new "South Campus" which looks to better use the space of the current appartments and the Intramural Fields. In the end I think that side of campus could use some sprucing up, and really connect us to River Road.

6284196034_c11f472dbb_b.jpg
 
Spinner..."South Campus" is desperately in need of improvement, especially since it's now supposed to be the front door of the campus. The apartments are all well past their sell-by dates, and more community spaces are defiintely needed out that way.

I do see that they've now posted info on the campaign on the UR site. The new admissions building looks gorgeous...this is the one that Queally was rumored to have given $10 million toward.

I assume other projects like the dorm near South Campus and the apartment replacement first phase aren't mentioned in the campaign because they're already funded. They're supposed to start very soon as long as things are still on track from a few weeks ago.

http://promise.richmond.edu
 
Yep, we got a total of 84 words in the TD " article". But the big news in town is the fund raising campaign for a basketball practice facility downtown. It will allow athletes 24 hour access to hone their skills. Probably no study hall though.
 
What ever happened to the plan to convert Milheiser into a basketball practice facility? Still waiting for the funding? As I recall, it was only going to cost about $2 million, which is relatively small potatoes.
 
Well, we'd need to raise the campaign goal to $152 million, and that's just too much of a stretch.
 
Beav I believe that was part fo the original target that 05 was referencing
 
Beav I believe that was part fo the original target that 05 was referencing
 
Anybody really know why this project hasn't gotten done. We announced the plans almost five years ago...rare for us to make such a press release like that in the first place.

The budget seems to be a pittance in the grand scheme of things, and we all thought the Mooney contract extension was likely to involve a commitment to finally getting it done. But here we are almost two years after even that event, and nothing.
 
Would love to see it announced soon, to better sway anyone of the C7 that questions our committment
 
Raising $200MM should have been incredibly easy for our school. The bungling of the soccer stuff (whether or not you agree with the actual decision, the handling of the process was among the worst I have seen in higher ed) and the inability to raise money have really soured what once looked to be a promising Ed Ayers presidency. If his administration was not so hell-bent on pursuing the liberal social agenda and actually just focused on hiring the best people and treating all of our constituencies with respect, we probably could have raised $500MM. I note that last year our endowment net lost money while almost all peers were net up 5%. Things are not looking that great.
 
Originally posted by spiderboy:
I note that last year our endowment net lost money while almost all peers were net up 5%.
Click to expand...
Bit of an overstatement...very few schools were up at least 5%, and almost none of those would be considered our peers. We were down 0.5%, which was pretty close to average.

Actually think much of your post is an exaggeration, but yes, the overall picture is concerning.
 
A couple of images from the video.

Admissions / Career Services Building

943572_10151548642030758_1958653081_n.jpg

New Apartment Complex

946928_10151548641630758_507292494_n.jpg
 
Do I understand this correctly, the first thing you see when you enter the new "main entrance" of the campus would be the new student dorms? Does that strike anyone else as strange?
 
Fan, they will be building some other buildings that are closer to the entrance in time. Currently you're faced with apartments. It's not a great entrance now, but I imagine that with time, it will be first rate.

I'll never forget coming down Boatwright the first time. Felt like home from the start.
 
The master plan calls for an administrative/academic building immediately on the right as you come in the River Road entrance. It's been proposed to house Continuing Studies as well as some administrative functions that don't need to be in the campus core as they are now.

To the left as you enter is also proposed some new higher-density housing, so yes, someone entering through this new main entrance will pass by quite a bit of housing. But I don't think that's necessarily an issue. Campuses generally grow up around a campus core with auxiliary functions at the periphery, so it's pretty common to see sights like housing when you first arrive. Heck, the Boatwright Drive entrance dumps you into a football stadium. Westhampton Gate gives you the alumni center followed by housing (and soon to be more housing) and the new sorority/student life cottages.
 
as an aside to this discussion, on campus over homecoming to attend the leaderships seminar and workshops and was at the one on our endowment. UR now has $2 BILLION in her endowment and we now manage another $1.3 BILLION of other schools' and nonprofits' endowments.
 
What ever happened with this capital campaign? I hear they are now having to have local album events to promote it. That doesn't sound good with the goals being so small.
 
BeavCowboy check out the thread on the football forum. I started a thread about an indoor facility and the Milhiser project came up. I think someone made a good point that it might not be such a big need and possibly Milhiser might not be large enough for the purpose that was considered.
 
That number is really pathetic! You gotta be kidding me! Dr. Ayers really screwed the pooch with that soccer deal. Prior to his boofing that, he could have raised $500MM with about 10 phone calls. Sad...
 
Point I was making is that Dr. Ayers blew an incredible amount of his own goodwill with a lot of our key alumni with the soccer fiasco. If they have only raised $30MM for a capital campaign in the last year, it doesn't speak well about his fundraising abilities or relationship building. We have a lot of loaded alums who love UR but feel like they've been taken for a ride by Cooper and Ayers and apparently aren't giving. Speaking as someone who tries to stay out of this stuff, I find it sad. My sense is that he could have raised a TON of money very easily before the soccer debacle, which was basically a story of how one rich alum's personal passion ended up alienating a lot of folks for no good reason.
 
Spiderboy, that is an incredible oversimplification. The University is in fine financial shape and i would be very surprised if eliminating soccer changes anything at all. It may be your personal feeling, but I would imagine the facts do not support that. I don't know either, but anything lost by eliminating soccer is probably gained by adding lacrosse. There is a $10MM head start to lax. I'm not supporting the decision made to eliminate a sport, just stating that you are connecting 2 dots that don't exist.
 
Originally posted by URPike:

Spiderboy, that is an incredible oversimplification.
Click to expand...
Whoa wait a minute. Sure Spiderbody is someone who admittedly "tries to stay out of this stuff", but I think he makes some great points. UR has lost a lot of goodwill...and by goodwill I mean 500 million dollars...enough for two Airbus A380 jet airliners (the largest passenger airliner in the world). Sure, to some people that's not a whole lot, but I guess I'm a working class kinda guy and I value a dollar. I tell ya, Ayers definitely "screwed the pooch."
[/I]
Why give in to the "personal passion" of a "rich alum'", [/I]when the right decision is to make "10 phone calls" to "loaded alums?" Sad really...
 
I admit to oversimplification but tell me how it is that our school is having trouble raising $150MM when the original goal was to be 3 times that? The school is in fine shape thanks to an endowment corpus established long ago. The lax effort may have been well endowed as a new sport, but the way it was handled alienated a lot of core alumni who have given us many millions more than the $15MM. When people like Bobby Ukrop bail on you, it ain't good. My sense is the lack of real fundraising goes back to how badly that was handled.
 
think there is probably some merit in the "boy's" thoughts but will only add, would never think of or purchase an airbus.
 
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