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April 21, 2008
Top
fundraisers start faculty meeting series
UO fundraisers and faculty members need to work together to raise more
money for academic programs.
Couple gives, sees impact firsthand
Herb
and Deb Chereck have given a combined total of fifty-five years of service to
the UO. They've also made personal gifts to the Career Center, to scholarships,
and to other funds.
Scholarships
make UO experience richer
Senior Cameron Bishop could have attended the UO without
scholarships. But the biology major from Eugene says his learning experience wouldn't have been the same.
Recent gifts to Campaign Oregon
$766.6 million and counting! The latest additions to Campaign Oregon: Transforming
Lives.
Top fundraisers start faculty meeting series
UO fundraisers and faculty members need to work together to raise more money
for academic programs.
That was one of the most important conclusions of a March 6 meeting between about twenty humanities department heads and faculty members in the humanities and the UO's top fundraising administrators, Vice President for University Advancement Allan Price and Associate Vice President for Development Shane Giese.
Jane Gary, director of development for the College of Arts and Sciences, also participated. The meeting was the first in a series of gatherings with faculty members to talk about the achievements of Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives and priorities for fundraising after the campaign.
"We want these meetings to be productive dialogues about the future," said Price. "Donors give to what they're passionate about. How do we create passion in our donors for what we need? We need to work in partnership with our faculty to do this."
Price said "big ideas"—cross-disciplinary initiatives built around compelling themes—will be one focus of post-campaign fundraising. Themes such as values, creativity, imagination, and human potential can provide frameworks for fundraising that link disciplines within the humanities and beyond.
Unifying themes have attracted millions in gifts and grants to UO science programs and could do the same for other fields, Price noted.
"The humanities meeting gave our faculty members a better understanding
of how fundraising works and reinforced the importance of faculty participation,"
said Wendy Larson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "It also helped fundraisers
recognize faculty members' desire for increased attention to the humanities,
which professors rightfully regard as a core area of knowledge and learning
in the liberal arts institution."
Upcoming meetings:
April 21: Social Sciences
May 1: Natural Sciences
Sessions for other schools and colleges will be set during the 2008-9 school year. As of March, the College of Arts and Sciences has raised 198 percent of its goal for the campaign.
Couple gives, sees impact firsthand
Herb
and Deb Chereck have given a combined total of fifty-five years of service to the
UO. They've also made personal gifts to the Career
Center, to scholarships, and to other funds.
Why do they give back? Because of their commitment to education. And because
they see the impact of private gifts every day.
"The university has been good to us over the years," says Herb,
the university registrar. "I make my modest contribution because I
believe that only with education can we begin to address the problems of
the world."
For Herb, the impact of financial aid (and the need for more) is a tangible part of his work. "I know there are students who are here only because of scholarships," he says. "I also see the students with holds on their registration who can't pay tuition."
Deb, director of the UO Career Center, says "I can't help but be inspired
by the potential I see every day. It's been such a fulfilling career."
While helping students achieve their goals, Deb sees the results of donations to the Career Center. "I don't know what we'd do without private gifts," she says.
"Actually, I do. We'd have to cut a staff member—and much more."
Thanks to private gifts, the center has expanded its programming and outreach
and hosted dinner events, career fairs, and workshops. Gifts also fund library
resources and support personnel.
The net result? The center can reach students at every stage of their college careers.
"Over four to five years, you can have all the building blocks to become productive members of society," says Deb. "When I talk about success, I don't mean money. It's learning about yourself and what gives you satisfaction while you are being productive."
"The university, town, and state have given so much to us," says Herb. "This is our small way of giving back."
Scholarships make UO experience richer
Senior Cameron Bishop could have attended the UO without
scholarships. But the biology major from Eugene says his learning experience wouldn't have been the same.
For Bishop, scholarships funded by gifts from Oregon Community Credit Union and the Bernard Osher Foundation mean he can avoid debt and work at a job that prepares him for the future. And it means he can take advantage of learning opportunities such as the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB).
After high school, Bishop joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and earned his
associates degree in automotive technology at Lane Community College. He
worked for five years as an auto technician. But he wanted something
more.
"I didn't really feel like I was effecting change," says Bishop, who wants
to teach and work on wildlife restoration. But he didn't want to take on
debt. If he hadn't received the scholarships, he says, he would probably
be working on cars part time and "stressing it" to stay in the black while
staying in school.
Instead, he's a wildlife biologist aide at Fern Ridge Reservoir, a job Bishop
describes as "more like a paid internship." He's spending this spring at
OIMB, something he says would be impossible without the scholarship support.
This kind of hands-on experience is invaluable, says Bishop. "If you sit in class all day, then you're not experiencing it in the field. It doesn't bring it home for me, especially for biology."
"Someone believed in me enough to help me out," he says. "I don't take that
for granted. There's a return on their investment. I'm going to be a productive
member of society and do my best to help others as they've helped me."
Recent gifts to Campaign Oregon
Following are just a few of the many recent contributions from private donors to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives for academic purposes:
- Jim and Ellyne Warsaw—$25,000 pledge to the
College of Education Building Fund for a seminar room in educational
leadership
- Oregon Community Foundation—$25,000 for the
Labor Education and Research Center
- Coquille Tribal Community Fund—$90,000 for
the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology and the Charleston Marine Life Center
- Larry Tice—$25,000 pledge for the Chapman
Hall Renovation Fund and the Robert D. Clark Honors College
- Ed and Marlies Artzt—$30,089 for the Edwin L. Artzt Deanship Fund for Journalism and Communication
Current campaign total: $766.6 million
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