$2 billion fund-raiser may lift UW into elite

By Sharon Pian Chan
Seattle Times staff reporter

	To strengthen the University of Washington, William H. Gates Sr. is chairing the second-biggest donation drive of its kind in the U.S.
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For the past three years, the University of Washington quietly has been raising $2 billion, the second-largest fund-raising campaign conducted by a public university in this country.

And in spite of the weak economy that has dogged the region, the drive is ahead of schedule, having banked $973.9 million by the end of November. The goal originally was to hit the $1 billion mark in June of this year.

The money will be used to create new programs, construct new buildings and fund new faculty positions and student scholarships. School officials hope the ambitious campaign will transform it into one of the country's best public universities. If it succeeds, it will launch a makeover of a public institution that will be mostly paid for by private individuals, corporations and foundations.

"We could probably go along several decades as an ordinary university," said William Gates Sr., chairman of the campaign. "But in order to have the faculty and personnel to do forward-looking research and technology, we need philanthropic support. This has become clear at institutions of higher education, including public ones."

Only UCLA, among public universities, has embarked on a more ambitious campaign. Only seven private universities, including Harvard and Columbia, have set higher goals, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The UW regents began the quiet phase of the fund-raising campaign in the summer of 2000. During that period, fund-raisers targeted a small number of individuals and foundations to secure million-dollar gifts.

The transformation of the university's central campus is already under way. The William H. Gates Building for the law school, the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, and the bioengineering and genome sciences building for which the university broke ground earlier this year all were part of the campaign.

Contributors have endowed more than 130 faculty chairs and professorships, which has included hiring professors such as Robert Waterston, one of the leaders of the Human Genome Project, and John Bransford, one of the country's leading education scholars.

In October, the university expects to enter the public phase of the campaign, when it will shift its focus to securing smaller gifts and grants from a wide swath of potential donors, including its alumni base and the general community. It hopes to reach the $2 billion target by 2008.

'A more impactful university'

"The core reason for private support is to make this what I call a more impactful university," said UW President Lee Huntsman. "Impactful on students, areas of understanding, on arts and culture, on our city, the region, our state and the globe."

Of the money raised, 40 percent is targeted for new programs, with the remaining 60 percent divided among student support, faculty positions and new buildings. All of the money won't be spent immediately: One-third will go to the university's endowment fund.

Members of 23 schools and programs at the UW will raise money toward their goals, with medicine, engineering, arts and sciences and the athletic department rounding up the lion's share of the campaign.

Around $1 billion of the campaign — about half the total — is expected to be brought in by the UW's medical-related programs, such as Harborview Medical Center, the medical school and other research departments. They hope to pour most of that money into research and new facilities, such as the bioengineering center and new buildings in the South Lake Union area.

The athletic department has built the Bank of America Arena and the Dempsey Indoor Practice Facility, and begun renovation of the crew house. The College of Arts and Sciences wants to create 100 professorships and faculty chairs.

"Private funding is the added dollars that is going to allow us to recruit the best faculty possible," said Michael Podlin, assistant dean for development and external relations in the College of Arts and Sciences. "The state is not going to take care of it, so we've got to seize that."

Publics looking private

The campaign reflects a fundamental shift in the way public universities across the country operate. Where schools used to rely purely on state funding, now they are reaching deeper and deeper into the private sector to finance education. In that way, they're beginning to look more like private schools.

The two buildings most recently completed at the UW cost $152 million. Of that, the state provided only $11.5 million, or 7.6 percent. The business school is currently raising $105 million, completely from private sources, to build a new complex that will be an academic facility at the UW totally paid for with private money.

"It's fair to talk about how public universities like the University of Washington have shifted to more resemble private universities in their revenues," said Huntsman. "But that's not the same as being a private university. It's not the same in the mission statement or the ownership."

At some education institutions around the country, private donations have been a mixed blessing, as donors tried to use their money to influence decision-making.

At the University of North Dakota, Las Vegas casino owner Ralph Engelstad threatened to cancel a $100 million donation to a new hockey arena two years ago when the public school considered dropping its Fighting Sioux nickname and logo.

In Cleveland, philanthropist Peter B. Lewis began a two-year boycott of local charities and causes to protest the way the board at Case Western Reserve University was running the private school.

Gates said those events are rare. He can't remember a conversation in which a donor tried to influence the UW in similar fashion.

"There are standards you have, and you can't take gifts from people who insist upon a role," he said.

But could raising large amounts of private money cloud the true picture of the UW's financial health? While the school has been marching toward its $2 billion campaign goal, it also has been pleading with the state Legislature for more money to support undergraduate students. In November, the UW threatened to cap its first-year enrollments and gradually eliminate the number of students it educates beyond what the state funds.

Could the Legislature get the impression the UW doesn't need the state support it says it does?

"It's always possible," said former Gov. Dan Evans, a UW regent.

But some legislators said the fund-raising campaign doesn't create that impression.

"I welcome and support those efforts," said Rep. Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, chair of the state House Appropriations Committee. "It's common for any leading university to raise money."

The jewel in the crown

While money is the concrete goal, the fund-raising campaign is one piece of a more ambitious, abstract dream: to make the University of Washington one of the most elite public universities in the country. The school wants to be spoken of in the same breath as the University of Michigan and UCLA.

According to its supporters, the UW already is in a class of its own. It receives the most federal research funding of any public university in the country, and the medical school is the top-rated school for primary care, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings this year.

"There are 15 or 20 first-class institutions of higher learning in the world. This is one," Gates says. "I refer to them as the jewels of the crown."

But as a whole, the UW remains locked out of the Top 10 circle of public universities in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. The UW is listed in 12th place, tied with the University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

To that end, a large part of the fund-raising campaign is a public-relations push. When the campaign goes public later this year, the university will start a marketing push focused on why it thinks the UW is critical to the region's future.

"It represents a splendid opportunity for us to tell our story, to talk about the impact on our region and the impact globally that UW Medicine has. It's a regional treasure," said Lynn Hogan, executive director of medical-affairs development.

That sentiment is echoed within various schools in the university. College of Arts and Sciences officials want to talk about how great their programs are. Ocean- and fishery-sciences leaders want to talk about how important their scientists are. If anything, the campaign gives them an opportunity to go out and brag.

"It's important to recognize that we aspire to excellence not just because it's a delight to be part of an outstanding university," Huntsman said, "but more profoundly because of what an outstanding university does for students and the community."

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company