This weekend's official Campaign kickoff will include the presentation of a table of primary needs and working goals for the University. Based largely on initiatives outlined in the 2002 Plan for Academic Enrichment, the table is a 12-page list of needs that will ultimately cost several billion dollars to fulfill. For now, the table will be presented to potential donors as a one-page abbreviation of needs that add up to the $1.3 billion target originally mentioned in the Plan.
The campaign priorities in the table will be announced officially Saturday night, though President Ruth Simmons told members of the Undergraduate Council of Students Wednesday that the table will be subject to change over the course of the campaign.
Simmons estimated that she attends two or three meetings every day where people tell her about something they need that didn't make it on the table and ask if the University will consider adding it.
The first public copy of the table could be on the Web in two to three weeks, she said.
"The danger of putting out a static list that is not a static list is that people hold on to it for years and see it as the (ultimate) table of needs," Simmons said.
Led by the provost's office and the president, the process of compiling the table began about a year ago. Organizers consulted department chairs, members of the Corporation, the senior administration and the Office of Development, as well as other campus groups.
A draft of the table was shown to UCS at a meeting in April, as well as to the Faculty Council and the Brown University Community Council.
"The table of needs is just a reflection of the Plan," said Ronald Vanden Dorpel, senior vice president for University advancement. "It is simply the document that helps us raise the money to fund the Plan." He added that the table is crucial to effectively organizing such a comprehensive campaign. After starting out with a strategic plan that has been accepted and acknowledged by all the key constituencies, the table serves as a vehicle to make campaign goals financial realities.
"It has a lot of value for raising money, for talking to people about what the needs of the University are," said Russell Carey, vice president and secretary of the University. The table also clarifies campaign goals for different members of the Brown community, he said.
The table is divided into three parts: $635 million for endowment funds, $200 million for facilities and $465 million for immediate programmatic support funds. The $1.3 billion in needs outlined in the table is not the same number that will be announced Saturday night as the official monetary goal of the campaign.
Among endowment needs in the plan, undergraduate financial aid takes top priority with a goal of $300 million. The University is seeking another $250 million for professorships.
Facilities needs listed in the table include $50 million for the Life Sciences building, $35 million for Sidney Frank Hall (the Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences Building), $30 million for the Jonathan Nelson Fitness Center and $20 million for construction of The Walk.
Immediate programmatic support funds, known as current-use gifts, can be given and spent in the same year, according to Vanden Dorpel. They include the Brown Annual Fund, the Brown Sports Foundation - which funds 25 to 30 percent of the athletic department budget at the University - and the advancement of departments, centers, institutes and programs.
In creating the table of needs, the University's primary concern was to provide an accurate summary of Brown's most pressing goals - one that any donor could look at and find something he or she is interested in funding.
"That's what you need in a campaign: something simple to show people and provide them with ample interest and opportunity to accomplish (their desires) as a donor," Vanden Dorpel said. "We try to match our appeals to peoples' interests."
Vanden Dorpel conceded that larger projects are the most difficult to fund and are often the University's most urgent financial concerns.
"$50 million for (the Life Sciences building), especially as it is going up, is a real priority," he said.
For a new project to be added, it will have to go through an approval process involving the Academic Priorities Committee, the provost and the president's Cabinet. However, Vanden Dorpel emphasized the need to "stay focused" on needs that have already been identified for the campaign to be as successful as possible.
"I'm just hoping we won't have to do too much of (adding projects to the table) because we've put a lot of planning in (already)," he said. "We've got to be clear and consistent for the next five years on what our priorities and objectives are."
