- A New, Signature Academic Building
- Endowment Resources for Financial Aid, Faculty Scholarship & Research and Endowed Faculty Chairs
- Athletic Facility Enhancements
- Maintaining Support for the Annual Fund
This capital campaign will strengthen the University as a Catholic institution of higher learning built upon the vision of the Venerable Father Emmanuel d’Alzon. This new campaign will enable the University to continue to develop new academic programs that meet market needs that are congruent with our mission.
The campaign will raise additional funds to cover the remaining costs of this academic center and provide additional resources that will fulfill the necessary and critical needs of our students, including financial aid. Nearly all students who attend Assumption receive some form of financial aid. Unfortunately, not all students obtain the assistance they require, yet, like each of you, they believe in the value of an Assumption University an education.
For the last two and half years, we have been engaged in the silent phase of our capital campaign. Much of the focus of our fundraising during the silent phase has been on this building. When we first attempted to project how much we could raise for this $21 million project, our campaign consultant indicated that if we raised $10 million for the project we would be doing well. As I stated earlier, there has been much enthusiasm for this project among our benefactors, who have responded generously to our appeal. As a result of that enthusiasm, we have exceeded expectation and raised to date over $17 million for this project! We have raised an additional $9 million for some of the other priorities of the campaign, bringing the total raised thus far in the silent phase to over $26 million.
This result in a short period of time could only happen through the efforts of our Institutional Advancement team and our Campaign Leadership – our Honorary Chair, Brian Kelly, ’83 and our co-Chairs, Carolyn Clancy, ’82 and Michael Sullivan, ’82.
Given the success of the silent phase, we are now ready to launch the public phase of the campaign. The goal for our Light the Way campaign is $35 million, the largest campaign goal ever in the history of Assumption University.
Once here, students are provided boundless opportunity to explore their chosen field. Much of that exploration is done in the form of student-faculty research where students work with faculty conducting research such as determining the causes of breast cancer, exploring the impact of mental illness on families and how it relates to depression or how smart smartphone influence addiction amongst college students. Endowment funding to support research such as these examples is critical to raising the academic profile of the institution and providing our students access to often groundbreaking research.
By investing in research and researchers, we are funding the discoveries of tomorrow and providing Assumption students a competitive edge when applying to graduate schools.
We are blessed at Assumption to have a number of exemplary faculty who are willing to include students in their research. Therefore, we must increase our investment in faculty development so that Assumption faculty can assume a larger role in making their own contributions to addressing the challenges facing society.
The administration, faculty and staff have been entrusted with a noteworthy responsibility to light the way for others; to be leaders in our chosen fields and form graduates who will make an impact on society. We must do more than simply prepare students for careers, rather, we must inspire them to make our world a better place. That is the goal of this campaign, a campaign to which I ask for your generous support.
Through your support, Assumption University can ensure a formative educational experience that meets the demands of the modern world and maintain a competitive advantage.
