The End of Campaign Report describes some of the many ways UT Dallas was buoyed by the generosity of donors who contributed to the future of the University.
A new End of Campaign Report describes the generosity and impacts to the campus brought about by the Realize the Vision campaign.
Alumni, friends, corporations, foundations, faculty, staff, and state and UT System matching funds provided $273.3 million to support academic and research programs, scholarships and faculty chairs, and campus enhancements.
The University’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign concluded in December 2014, surpassing its original $200 million goal. The five-year effort established 237 endowed funds to bolster the work of students and faculty and brought UT Dallas closer to becoming a national research university.
“To the University community and supporters: Thank you for committing to our vision,” President ad interim Hobson Wildenthal said. “The evidence of your generosity is all around us as our enrollment, academic programs, student and faculty achievements, research support and the physical campus itself have all grown.”
Alumni gifts made up nearly half of the contributions during the five-year campaign.
Wildenthal said the campaign moved the University further along its path, but that sustained investment by the University community will continue to be essential to achieve “international recognition as a major research university of the first rank.”
Campaign supporters contributed to every school, center and program at the University, including $69.7 million for academics; $55.1 million for other programs, facilities, campus enhancement and opportunity funds and $45.8 million for research. Fifty-seven endowed chairs, professorships and faculty fellowships were added during the campaign, bolstering research and attracting outstanding faculty members to campus.
Corporate and foundation partners were crucial to the success of the campaign.
Donors fueled student success by giving $35.5 million for scholarships and fellowships.
“The Fred Hill Endowed Scholarship for Public Service made it possible for me to afford working and living full time in Washington in an unpaid capacity," said Cody Willming BA'14, who interned with the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee. "Without that opportunity, I would not have been able to build the experience and network I needed to move to D.C. and start my career.”
Scholarships also provided Solomon Luo MS’78, an ophthalmologist with a large private practice in Pennsylvania, a way to honor the late professor he credits for motivating him to attend medical school. He and his wife, Wendy, established the John Jagger Scholarship for Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
“Dr. Jagger was an influential mentor during my time at UT Dallas, and he went out of his way to assist me with my acceptance into medical school,” Luo said. “If not for Dr. Jagger, I probably wouldn’t have gone down that path.”
Gifts also created campus-shaping programs, including the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, which unites the sciences with the scholarship of art historians, and the Texas Biomedical Device Center, which develops new biomedical technology, devices and therapies.
The center was born after $13 million in gifts from Texas Instruments and an anonymous donor and state matching funds were combined.
“With Texas Instruments and UT Dallas supporters investing in us, the initiatives we’re moving forward with, will, I think, change the world, and we’ll see the result in our lifetimes,” said Dr. Robert Rennaker, director of the center and the Texas Instruments Distinguished Chair in Bioengineering.