Completing our largest capital campaign, at $30m
In 2009 the University celebrated and capped the institution’s single largest capital campaign, The Campaign for UW-Green Bay.
The $30 million campaign re-made the University with new facilities, approximately 50 new student scholarships, new professorships, our first two named chairs, and academic enhancements.
The drive’s conclusion was marked by a December reception at the Weidner Center where Chancellor Thomas K. Harden extended his deepest appreciation to community co-chairs Ginny Riopelle and Tom Olson and principal volunteer Mike Meeuwsen.
Community response was remarkable. The campaign netted six separate gifts of $1 million or more, two dozen gifts of $100,000 or more, and numerous contributions that represented the donors’ largest gifts to charity. Other universities may lean heavily upon alumni but with UW-Green Bay’s moderate size and youth, Harden noted in his reception remarks, that alone won’t get us where we need to be. “We are fortunate,” he said, “to have donors who value UW-Green Bay, the UW System and a strong public university.”
The campaign netted approximately $19 million for academic purposes and $11 million to support construction of the Kress student events center. In total, there were more than 2,500 gifts from individuals, families, companies and foundations; alumni and non-alumni; UW-Green Bay employees, retirees and community supporters. The campaign resulted in:
- At least 50 new named scholarships, more than doubling the scholarship endowment;
- UW-Green Bay’s first endowed chair, the John P. Blair Endowed Chair in Communication;
- Our second endowed chair, the Austin E. Cofrin Chair in Business;
- Creation or expansion of four named professorships: the Frederick E. Baer Professorship in Business, the Patricia Wood Baer Professorship in Education, the Austin E. Cofrin Professorship in Management, and the enhanced Philip J. and Elizabeth B. Hendrickson Professorship for Business;
- Restoration and remodeling of historic Lambeau Cottage on the campus bayshore;
- Addition of a campus bell tower, the Weidner Memorial Carillon;
- A remade campus landscape with the $32.5m Kress Events Center — funded one-third by Campaign contributions in partnership with state funds ($7.5m) and student fees — and the companion project to the Kress, the $6.2m remodeling and expansion of the University Union funded by student fees and program revenue;
- An increase in the value of the University’s total endowment from a beginning book value of roughly $7 million to an ending book value of more than $16 million.
At a reception in December to celebrate the completion of the campaign, Chancellor Harden noted.... “We are fortunate to have donors who value UW-Green Bay, the UW System and a strong public university.”
