THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510080025
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
The University of Virginia knows how to treat its alumni right.
Saturday, it offered a sumptuous spread for the mind and palate. In the afternoon, a series of seminars from the brightest lights on the faculty: former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove, political analyst Larry Sabato, historian Ed Ayers.
At night, a dinner of grilled salmon, roasted fowl stuffed with corn bread, and chocolate replicas of the Rotunda - the campus centerpiece - stuffed with pumpkin mousse.
And then a program, mixing music and testimonials to Mr. Jefferson's university, emceed by ``Today'' co-anchor Katie Couric, a 1979 graduate.
The beneficiaries were about 1,100 alums, who also know how to treat U.Va. right. They're among the most generous donors in the university's $750 million fund-raising campaign, which went into high gear this weekend.
It is the most ambitious fund drive that any college has undertaken in the state. But U.Va. isn't the only Virginia school pressing harder for help from private sources.
With state funding evaporating and pressure intensifying to limit tuition increases, other universities are also polishing the silver to court donors. Last month, for instance, Virginia Tech launched a $250 million drive.
``Every institution is going to have to be in a capital campaign,'' said Harry P. Creemers, executive director of development at Old Dominion University, which plans to launch a multimillion-dollar drive next year. ``Capital campaigns are going to be with us, and they're going to underwrite the costs of higher education.''
Gordon K. Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education, said, ``What we're seeing in Virginia over the last five years is a disinvestment in higher education (by the state), and I think colleges and universities are looking to other sources of support.''
The danger, Davies said, is that such campaigns will increase the financial disparity between state-supported schools. ``I think over the next several decades, the difference between public and private universities and colleges is going to be replaced by a difference between haves and have-nots,'' he said. Already, U.Va.'s endowment stands at $950 million; ODU's is $28 million.
The college rankings in last month's U.S. News & World Report magazine show the need for the U.Va. campaign, said Joshua P. Darden Jr., the chairman of the fund drive and president of Darden Properties Inc. in Norfolk. The university was ranked 19th-best in the country - but in terms of financial resources, it came in 62nd.
``We obviously are competing with the very best national universities and, in almost every case, with private universities,'' said Darden, a 1958 graduate. ``In the resources that are available, we're below our peer institutions. If we're going to continue to stay in the top 25 national universities and move ahead, it's going to have to be with private dollars.''
State aid to colleges was slashed more than 20 percent under former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. For the University of Virginia, state funding covered 27 percent of the university's budget in 1990. Last year, it made up 14 percent.
The $750 million campaign includes a smorgasbord of beneficiaries, from public-service projects to five new buildings for the business school, named after Joshua Darden's uncle.
For Darden, an important component is $117 million to lure more cream-of-the-crop professors to U.Va.
``One of the key measures of a great university is a quality faculty,'' he said. ``There is no way to attract and retain the quality of faculty we want with the level of state support.''
A recent state report ranked U.Va. 12th among 25 peer institutions in the country in average faculty salaries, trailing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Just as crucial, said President John T. Casteen III, is $113 million for student scholarships. ``The federal financial aid system is in turmoil,'' he said. ``I don't think anyone believes the government is going to come back to the level of funding for student scholarships that it used to.''
Robert S. Poole, vice president for development at Norfolk State University, said the big-money campaigns at big schools could affect smaller schools like his own in two ways.
The pessimistic view, he said, is that ``these big campaigns will take all the money away and there won't be any for anyone else.'' But he adheres to the brighter outlook - that ``big campaigns do raise the sights of everyone in terms of what the needs are for higher education.''
NSU also is considering a major campaign, Poole said, but won't get close to the same level of support. Norfolk State is still fairly young - 60 years old - while U.Va. is nearing 180.
Norfolk State has far fewer alumni with the wealth or clout of Darden or Couric.
And Norfolk State has a smaller fund-raising staff: U.Va. has about 70 full-time employees soliciting money, according to Robert D. Sweeney, vice president for development. At NSU, ``basically it's me and the alumni director,'' Poole said.
A study by the Council for Aid to Education in New York shows the big gaps in private support for different types of colleges: Last year, donations averaged $52 million per school at private research universities, $27 million at public research institutions, $5 million at smaller private liberal arts colleges and $764,000 at public liberal arts colleges.
But David Morgan, vice president at the council, said, ``These different types of institutions have different types of missions. Just looking at the numbers can be misleading.'' Big universities need more money to support graduate students, big libraries and sometimes medical schools, Morgan said.
To help even the score, Gov. Wilder suggested striking the Virginia law that forbids legislators from taking into account private support when they decide how much public funds each college should receive.
But Davies, the top state official overseeing colleges, said: ``If you go out to potential donors and they know that for every dollar they give you, the state will withdraw a dollar of support, it's much less attractive for them.''
Like most college fund drives, U.Va.'s and Tech's began years before they went public. Tech has already raised $150 million - or 60 percent of its goal - and U.Va. $300 million - or 40 percent.
U.Va. has been nudging recent graduates to consider doubling their annual gift, say from $50 to $100, said Sweeney, the vice president. But the big push is for big donations.
``The general rule is that 90 percent of the money comes from 10 percent of the donors,'' said Charles W. Steger, vice president for development and university relations at Tech. U.Va. has already received 58 gifts of at least $1 million each, most from alumni, Sweeney said.
More than 90 percent of the money going to both schools is earmarked for specific programs. Tech's Steger acknowledges that that opens the possibility of schools getting stuck with gifts in areas that donors hold dear, but the universities don't.
In Sweeney's previous job at Chapel Hill, he had to turn down a major donation for the teaching of golf. But Steger said that usually doesn't happen: ``I find the donors making those kinds of gifts do their homework and understand about the university.''
Development officers like Sweeney and Steger aren't the only ones consumed by fund drives. Casteen, U.Va.'s president, estimates that he spends 80 percent of his time these days on fund-raising, traveling from southwest Virginia to Puerto Rico.
Casteen has had to sacrifice other duties, including teaching an English class, to make room. But he said it has to be done: ``Either you do this or you accept substantial damage to your programs as the cost of the decline in public financing.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Members of the Capital Band play fanfares at U.Va. to call guests to
dinner, with the Rotunda in the background.
KEYWORDS: COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES VIRGINIA FUNDING by CNB