The Wheaton Record
Wheaton, Ill.

Oct. 7, 2005

$250 million campaign launched
By Sarah Pulliam
The college hopes to raise $250 million during the largest capital campaign in the history of Wheaton, according to Director of Development Galen Smith.
The five-year capital campaign was launched July 1, and Smith said the advancement office has raised $49 million to date. Smith could not give names of people who have already donated.
Smith said most of the funds raised thus far are undesignated. The campaign is scheduled to finish June 30, 2010, the 150th anniversary of the college.
The advancement office plans to raise $50 million a year over five years. In comparison, Smith said the office raised $25 million—a moderate amount—last year because there were no major capital projects before this campaign began.
Depending on donor contributions, Smith said there are four major sections of the college that will benefit from the current campaign: $60 million will go to the fine arts; $54 million will go to science departments; $27 million will go to need-based scholarships; and $18 million will go to a new faculty-student mentoring program.
He also said the $91 million of the campaign will fund other projects including educational programs and an expansion of the library.
Students, faculty and staff have provided input on the use of funds by participating on committees for the past three years. The money will be distributed based on donor and administrative decision, according to Smith.
President Litfin said the arts and the natural sciences represent the college’s greatest capital needs right now.
“If we can address these needs in the next five years, the entire campus will benefit greatly,” Litfin said. “No campaign can ever satisfy everyone’s desires, but this one comes as close as any I’ve seen.”
Smith emphasized that the college is in a two-year quiet phase that will determine the number of projects—and which specific projects—administrators feel are feasible to fund by 2010. He said as soon as the college receives funding for a project, it will begin to implement it.
The college’s arts initiative will build a new $30 million conservatory building and a $19 million performing arts center containing a theater and 500-seat auditorium, according to Smith. It will also raise $7 million to renovate Adams Hall and $4 million to expand Edman Chapel northward for new classrooms.
The college is still determining where the new conservatory will be located. Smith said there are three potential options for placement: the Wheaton Christian Grammar School, which would be purchased when it becomes available; Jenks Hall and McAlister Conservatory; and Pierce Memorial Chapel. Smith said he is unsure whether the buildings would be torn down or remodeled.
The college hopes to tear down Breyer Laboratory and add a $54 million addition to the north end of a renovated Armerding Hall on Kenilworth Avenue.
Included in the renovation and expansion will be a museum containing Perry Mastadon and taxidermy, greenhouses, an outdoor class area, indoor classrooms, laboratories, offices and study areas, according to blueprints provided by Smith.
Four million dollars will go to faculty lab start-up costs, funding equipment and faculty/student research. Another four million dollars will go to fine arts programs to provide for more equipment.
The third component of the campaign includes $27 million in scholarships. Smith said donors choose where to restrict their money, but the advancement office will encourage need-based scholarships. The college’s current endowment allocated to scholarships has a fair market value of $90,366,909, according to Smith.
The last major section that would benefit from the campaign is the $18 million faculty-student mentoring program, which Provost Stan Jones is advocating.
The college hopes to add 25 new faculty members to take some course loads, freeing time for existing faculty to act as mentors. Jones said the administration is still discussing which departments will get more professors.
Through this program, students would be able to have a professor mentor them for class credit.
Jones said some schools have undergraduate research programs that omit the dimension of spiritual and personal growth and other schools have honors or leadership programs for a few elite students, but no one appears to have the kind of program Wheaton will attempt.
“For example, a business/economics professor would take four or five students and study a cutting-edge issue in management, developing the students’ professional skills while building friendships that encourage their spiritual and personal growth,” Jones said.
The campaign will also allocate $5 million to a Buswell Library renovation in which the archives will be moved from the library to the Billy Graham Center to provide more study space on the first floor. There will also be vending machines and tables placed in the reference desk area.
In a project separate from the campaign, the college hopes to add a $27 million expansion to the library as soon as they find donors to fund the project. The library would be expanded to the north and east of the building on Irving Street.
The expanded library would contain more space for studying and storage, a café in front of the reference desk and an auditorium in the basement.
In addition to the library project, the college may tear down Wyngarden Health Center and Schell Hall to expand the current quad. Smith said there are no specific plans for the buildings’ replacements because the projects are at least 10 years away.
Three million dollars of the campaign will go towards staffing Beyond The Classroom (BTC), another initiative of Jones. BTC is an initiative that promotes internships, global study programs, ministries and athletics.
Jones said the sought endowment will fund a BTC director and a standing campus BTC working group. The group will coordinate, promote, develop, expand and support specific educational opportunities for students.
Two million dollars from the campaign will fund more staff members for the evangelism initiative to be coordinated by Jerry Root, associate director for evangelism training of the Institute for Strategic Evangelism of the BGC, and Director of the BGC Lon Allison.
Smith said the advancement office hopes to secure $30 million in unrestricted planned gifts. The gifts are trusts and annuities–gifts given during life that come to the college at the donor’s death. They support both annual operations and capital needs. Smith said unrestricted gifts came to about $3 to $4 million a year in the past.
The advancement office is working to increase unrestricted giving to the Wheaton fund, which is used to help subsidize the cost of every student’s education each year.
The college hopes to raise $4.1 million of unrestricted giving to $5.2 million in 2010 to total $33 million over the campaign period.
In addition, the college hopes to raise $10 million in non-specified projects as part of the campaign. The money would fund ongoing programs such as HoneyRock, the Wade Center and the BGC.
16,000 people donated to the college last year. Smith said 50 to 55 percent of the donors are alumni and 30 percent are parents or parents of former students.
“From a human perspective, attempting to raise $250 million over the next five years is an overwhelming task,” Smith said.
Smith said the college plans to raise the money by having events for constituents. Smith also said that he, Litfin, Vice President of Advancement Mark Dillon and eight regional directors of development travel throughout the country to tell people about the campaign.
Smith does not know how much fundraising will cost, but said it will be a very small portion of the total raised. He said very little has been spent thus far to raise funds.
The last campaign, the New Century Challenge, raised $158 million with an initial goal of $140. The six-year campaign ended June 30, 2001, and funded projects such as the Sports and Recreation Complex and a technology initiative to improve campus technology.