Billion-dollar campaign nearing goal

Funding for Syracuse University's billion-dollar campaign is continuing to gain momentum and is slightly ahead of schedule, with $930 million raised since the campaign started in 2005.

The Campaign for SU went public in November 2007 and will end Dec. 31, 2012, with the goal of raising $1 billion. Brian Sischo, vice president of development, said he is confident the money will be raised on time.

By December 2010, the goal was to reach $800 million. But by the end of October 2010, the campaign already raised $801 million.

The goal for the last two years of the campaign was to increase young alumni donations. "Generation Orange" is a group of young energized alumni that Sischo said would pull the university over the billion-dollar hump with only one year remaining.

Young alumni is not the only group Sischo is targeting. The university, through Chancellor Nancy Cantor's strong connections and fundraising abilities, has received donations from major corporations such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other private foundations, Sischo said.

With the money the university has already raised, buildings including Newhouse III and the Life Sciences Complex have been built. The Carmelo K. Anthony Center was also built with funds from the campaign.

Sischo and the rest of the institutional development office have been launching regional campaigns to increase the overall national involvement of the campaign, Sischo said. The first campaign was launched in Boston with an "all hands on deck approach," Sischo said.

Following the campaign in Boston, a Los Angeles campaign began followed by another in Washington D.C. in spring 2011 and ending in early fall this year

This fall, the largest of all the campaigns was launched in New York City and will culminate by the end of spring 2012.

"This is an opportunity for us to reach out broadly to all alumni, family and institutions," Sischo said in a Daily Orange article from December 2010.

Sischo said there are five main areas that this money will benefit: faculty support, individual student support, infrastructure, program support and undesignated support to the certain parts of the university.

Jeff Crislip, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he believes the money should go to hiring more professors throughout the university.

"Hiring more faculty will enable students to have more one-on-one time with their teachers," Crislip said.

Faculty support is one area where Sischo said the money from the campaign would go to and has gone. Funds have lowered in faculty support in recent years but Sischo said the goal is to create more endowed chairs and professorships in the coming years.

Funding student scholarships is a main part of the individual student support area, while supporting veteran and military families is a main part of the program support goal.

Sischo is also aiming to allocate Dean's Funds to each individual college throughout the university. By doing this, it gives the university more means of funding for the best new professors, Sischo said.

When 2012 comes to an end and the campaign is concluded, the university will not stop raising money, Sischo said. The campaign will officially end but the giving never stops, he said.

Sischo said he is confident the university is on track to achieve the goal of $1 billion by the end of 2012, as only $70 million needs to be raised in the next year.

Said Sischo: "The university is very well positioned, however, there is still a lot of work left to do."

nrcardon@syr.edu