Pitt announces $1 billion mark with fanfare, goodies at Pete

With a cool $1 billion in the pocket of the University from the capital campaign fund, a… With a cool $1 billion in the pocket of the University from the capital campaign fund, a small chunk of change could be set aside to buy 4,038 T-shirts and 5,000 candy bars as a thank-you to Pitt supporters.

Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg made the official announcement that the Discover a World of Possibilities capital campaign fund had reached the $1 billion milestone first at a Board of Trustees meeting in the William Pitt Union Friday morning.

He announced it again at the Petersen Events Center that afternoon during the all-campus celebration, which included the distribution of the coveted T-shirts and candy bars.

“This is a great afternoon for the University of Pittsburgh,” Nordenberg said to begin the festivities. “Here we are, our first billion accounted for. We do need to keep going.”

The fund, quadrupled from its original goal of $500 million to $2 billion last June, currently boasts $1,011,568,458.45 in donations. It reached the $1 billion mark eight months earlier than expected and is now the largest such campaign in the history of Pennsylvania.

“This puts Pitt in the big leagues of university fundraising, and we want to be in the big leagues in everything we do,” Nordenberg said.

In launching the campaign 10 years ago, the Board of Trustees decided that its objectives would be to strengthen undergraduate, graduate and professional programs, to enhance educational facilities and technologies, and to help student life, community and economic development.

The establishment of professorships and department chairs, scholarships and endowments, research centers, libraries, new campus buildings, research projects, book purchases, laboratory and classroom renovations and student academic projects has been the direct result of the campaign, according to Nordenberg.

“It translates into more financial aid for students, more support for faculty and staff and more money for programs and facilities,” he said. And it “adds richness to the lives of the people in all five of our campuses.”

More than 116,000 contributors currently foot the bill for the fund.

“People are donating because they believe in the students and the research,” Albert J. Novak Jr., who is the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement, said. “One of the key focuses is undergraduate scholarship,” he added

Opportunities for students, especially in undergraduate research, are one of the largest reasons for the campaign, according to Novak.

“Undergraduate research fellowships are a priority here,” he said.

Indeed, this promise for student support translates into real numbers, with the campaign creating 332 new endowed scholarships and 29 new fellowships for students.

And with Congress’ recent drastic cuts in student aid, financial help for students is a current concern. State appropriations for aid currently are barely over 10 percent.

Private funding through endeavors like the capital campaign is a way to bridge that gap, Nordenberg said.

Of the thousands of supporters of the campaign, alumni gave 59 percent of the donations.

“For many donors, they give to an institution because of their personal connection,” Chancellor for Health Sciences Development Clyde Jones said.

Two special contributors, both with close ties to Pitt, were applauded for their generosity at the Trustees meeting.

Graduate student Valerie Hopkins became the 100,000th donor on April 15, 2005, when she established the Goldstein Endowment Fund in honor of her beloved professor Donald Goldstein.

“I am thrilled that my contribution would help to continue programs and help students achieve their goals,” she said of the scholarship.

Appropriately, Professor Donald Goldstein, acknowledged by the University Trustees with a standing ovation, was recognized for his own landmark donation, which pushed the total fund from $999,756,183.35 to more than $1 billion on Oct. 12.

Goldstein, who teaches in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, gave $1 million in the form of a cash donation of $110,000 and $890,000 in archival material to the capital campaign.

The archives, fittingly named the Goldstein Collection, include diaries, letters, interview transcripts, films, photographs and books chronicling World War II notables such as Amelia Earhart and Hitler and describing military events from Pearl Harbor to the Korean War.

“This is straight old history, stuff we’ve got to get the young’uns interested in,” Goldstein said of his donation. Although it is not a purely monetary gift, it is “maybe a million dollars when it comes to knowledge,” he added.

After Goldstein concluded the Trustees meeting, the excitement over the achievement moved from the William Pitt Union to upper campus.

Thousands of students, faculty, staff and friends of the University flooded the floor of the Petersen Events Center in celebration of the $1 billion achievement at the all-campus celebration on Friday afternoon. Even students and staff members from Pitt branch campuses joined in the fun, as the University bused them to Oakland for the special event.

The celebration kicked off with a corps of Pitt band trumpeters heralding the entrance of Nordenberg.

The mood was electric following Nordenberg’s announcement of the immense success of the campaign. A video detailing the many benefits of the Discover a World of Possibilities fund showed students, faculty and staff from all Pitt campuses thanking the University.

The celebration continued with appearances by the Pitt cheerleaders and the Panther himself.

Students received gold-and-blue ringer “Building our future together” T-shirts and specialty Cathedral of Learning-adorned chocolate bars as mementos of the celebration.

Four chocolate bars were adorned with stickers indicating special prizes. Two bars entitled each of their lucky recipients to a $500 gift certificate to the Pitt bookstore, one hid the ticket to a Dave Wannstedt autographed football and another held the rights to an autographed Pitt basketball.

Refreshments provided to attendees of the celebration included popcorn, soda, cake and vanilla and banana split ice cream from by Valley Dairy and scooped by high-ranking members of the University administration.

“The giveaways were a good way to get people to go,” sophomore event attendee Ryan Walker said. And as for the big announcement of hitting the $1 billion mark, “For the future of the University, it will be good.

“I feel like we won’t see the benefits now, but we’ll see small benefits here and there,” he added.

While students may not recognize the immediate benefits of the capital campaign, the administration sees the big picture as the money pours into Pitt.

“It affects students in more ways than I can describe,” Nordenberg said. “The billion dollar campaign touches everyone, even if they don’t know it.”