Campaign Oregon

Private Gifts Key to Academic Excellence

The University of Oregon excels and prospers, despite declining state appropriations, increased tuition, and below-market faculty salaries—largely because of private gifts.

Donations fund scholarships, innovative teaching methods, and new academic programs. For example, the Tom and Carol Williams Fund for Undergraduate Education enables creation of dozens of new courses and forward-looking instruction methods each year. Gifts pay for new buildings and equipment. In short, private support keeps the university moving forward.

During the Oregon Campaign in the 1990s, donors contributed $255.3 million. The campaign almost tripled student financial aid; boosted endowed chairs and professorships from twenty to seventy-four; helped launch at least six new fields of study and six new building projects; and funded new courses and new ways to teach.

The success of the Oregon Campaign demonstrated that private gifts are the best way—indeed, maybe the only way—to improve university quality in today’s world. Campaign Oregon will transform the university and the lives of those it touches.