NEWARK Thursday, April 24, 1997 - New Jersey Institute of Technology officials tonight announced the start of The Campaign for NJIT: Design for the Future, a $120 million fundraising campaign.
The seven-year fund-raising effort, the largest and most ambitious in NJIT's 116 year history, is focused on adding to the public research university's nearly $20 million endowment. The $120 million Campaign for NJIT goal includes a $45 million Fund for the Future and $75 million Innovation Fund.
University officials plan to raise $44 million in public funds and $76 million in private contributions by the year 2001. To date, the university has raised about $71 million including some $33 million in public funds and nearly $38 million in private funds.
"After more than 20 years of intensive development, NJIT has emerged as a public research university that enhances intellectual vitality, economic development and the quality of life in New Jersey and the nation," said Saul K. Fenster, university president. "NJIT's endowment, which has grown to $20 million in the past several years, remains modest. If NJIT is to gain firm control over its destiny, it is critical for the university to develop an endowment capable of funding scholarships, fellowships, and sponsored chairs, as well as enhancements to the instructional and research programs and improvements in campus life facilities."
Governor Christine Todd Whitman is serving as honorary chair of The Campaign for NJIT: "In New Jersey, we know NJIT is a `place of opportunity' where students who have the fortitude to tackle rigorous course work in architecture, engineering, management, mathematics, computer science and the sciences find the solid grounding they need to aim high, go far and make a real difference. Time and again, when faced with complex policy issues, organizations throughout the state have turned to NJIT for objective, science-based advice and analysis. The Campaign for NJIT is critically important to the university's ability to continue to recruit high achieving students and outstanding faculty."
Chairing The Campaign for NJIT is alumnus Victor A. Pelson, chair of the NJIT Board of Trustees and director and senior advisor at Dillon, Read & Co. Vice chair is James A. Kennedy, chair of the NJIT Board of Overseers and president and CEO of National Starch and Chemical Co.
"Global competitiveness is more than technologies and strategies. It is people," said Pelson. "When it comes to competition in the marketplace, the only sustainable advantage is people creative, skilled, highly educated people. New Jersey and the nation will rely upon the kinds of men and women who graduate from NJIT to design and produce goods, keep our corporations on the cutting edge and lead in the global economy."
National Starch's Kennedy said: "NJIT is the university for economic development. This is where forward-thinking businesses can find the expert staff, faculty, and students to leverage their R&D efforts. This is where partnerships between industry and academe can hasten diversification into new markets and speed product commercialization. NJIT understands how business and industry work, and educates people who are vital to their workforce needs."
The Campaign for NJIT's $45 million Fund for the Future focuses on building the university's endowment to fund additional scholarships, fellowships, and sponsored chairs and professorships and to create a $10 million venture fund to enable the university to respond quickly when unanticipated opportunities arise.
The $75 million Innovation Fund is to support improvements and enhancements to instruction and research programs and facilities as well as campus life programs and facilities.
Among the important lead gifts to The Campaign for NJIT are:
· $1 million from AT&T
· $1 million from National Starch and Chemical Co.
· $800,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation
· $500,000 from Panasonic Industrial Co., a division of Matsushita Electric Co. of America, to support creation of a sponsored chair in Multi-Lifecycle Engineering
· $250,000 from Mobil Foundation
· $150,000 from Schering-Plough Foundation
· $150,000 from Merck Foundation
· $75,000 from Turner Construction
· $105,000 from Foster Wheeler Corp.
· $1 million from Michael Pappas '59 a former faculty member and internationally recognized inventor of medical devices including the New Jersey Knee.
· $250,000 from Seymour "Zoom" Fleisher '51, founder and chairman of Pilot Technologies
· $250,000 from John Olson '61, '66, senior vice president and regional director, Dean Witter Reynolds
· $100,000 from Laurence Seifert '63, senior vice president at AT&T Wireless Services
The Campaign for NJIT is the fourth major fundraising effort in the university. The first campaign conducted in 1884 raised $40,000 to construct a building for Newark Technical Schools, one of NJIT's predecessors. NJIT's second century began in 1981 with the Centennial Campaign, a $12 million effort focused on acquisition of property adjacent to campus and construction of the university's Mechanical Engineering Center. The Governor's Challenge Campaign raised more than $34 million, some $9 million more than the $25 million goal between 1986 and 1990. The effort was in response to Governor Thomas Kean's challenge that NJIT become one of the nation's top comprehensive technological institutions.
NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 7,900 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in 67 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science. U.S. News and World Report's 1997 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT among the second quartile (58-114) of 229 national universities. Money Magazine's Best College Buys 1997 rated NJIT as the third best value among U.S. science and technology schools and 59th among the Top 100 U.S. higher education institutions.
-end-
4/8/97
For more information contact: The Office of Public Relations, (973) 596-3434
Release number: #3238-B