Editorial: Fundraising critical for universities in lean times

Students at Washington’s public universities and college have not been feeling much love lately from their benefactors in Olympia.

Higher education has become the go-to piggy bank when legislators look for the few extra dollars that will plug this or that budget gap. Unwilling to consider new taxes, or even eliminate tax breaks, they have instead handed to university trustees the ugly duty of raising tuition to backfill for the siphoned state dollars.

The result? Double-digit increases four years running, programs eliminated and more student debt.

But, if you are a student at Washington State University, you do have a few friends, roughly 155,000 of them. That’s the number of donors who so far have committed their financial support to the WSU Foundation’s “Campaign for Washington State University: Because the World Needs Big Ideas.”

The campaign was launched in July 2006 without fanfare. It was the first in 10 years, and only the second in the university’s history. The first, concluded in 1997, raised $275 million for teaching, research and student experience, including financial aid. A feasibility study for the new campaign suggested a goal around $650 million, even though the university’s needs clearly exceeded that mark.

Elson Floyd became WSU’s president one year later, and had another suggestion: raise the goal to $1 billion. He says that was a modest goal compared with that of other universities conducting campaigns at the same time. And at the time, the University of Washington was nearing completion of its successful $2 billion campaign.

UW wrapped up before the recession. WSU was not so lucky. Still, as of the end of April, the campaign had $680 million in hand. Gifts from Paul Allen and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, $26 million and $25 million, respectively, are underwriting construction of the Paul G. Allen Center for Global Animal Health. Gene and Linda Voiland committed a total of $27 million to two WSU engineering programs. The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission has pledged $27 million.

But, as Floyd told a gathering of supporters last week in Spokane, the campaign is now in the heavy-lifting phase in which untapped resources must be found, and those already on board will be asked for more. The main campaign is due to wrap up in 2015.

As if the $1 billion goal is not enough, WSU is working with UW to raise a separate $200 million that will be dedicated to the budding medical school on the Riverpoint Campus.

Those are two tall orders. And every other public university is also out there looking for support that, Floyd says, can mean the difference between mediocrity and excellence.

For students, from Pullman to Cheney to Vancouver to Bellingham, it can mean a little love.