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'Love and Honor' works to secure $30 million in donations

Caitlin Varley

Miami University's For Love and Honor Campaign has recently secured seven professorships and currently has three $10 million gifts in negotiation.

These contributions have been engaged with the university and with Miami President David Hodge for a long time, according to Jayne Whitehead, vice president for university advancement, who was unable to speak about the specifics of the negotiations.

According to Brad Bundy, associate vice president for university advancement and campaign manager, it is hard to tell when the negotiations will be finished.

"Giving is a very personal thing that is done often times at the time frame of the donor," Bundy said. "We just want to make sure that we are being responsive to what it is that the donor wants to do and the type of legacy that they want to leave at Miami, and sometimes those negotiations take quite awhile to work out."

According to Whitehead, the purpose of the For Love and Honor Campaign is to provide private support for all sorts of programs and priorities at Miami.

"(The For Love and Honor Campaign) is a $500 million fund-raising initiative to raise money for different programs and priorities at Miami University," Whitehead said.

Since the beginning of the For Love and Honor Campaign in January 2002, Miami has received six gifts in excess of $10 million.

Right now, 62 percent of the gifts for this campaign have come from alumni and 20 percent have come from corporations and foundations, according to Bundy.

Contributions also come from parents of students and friends of the university, which includes current and former faculty and staff and people in the community, Bundy said.

According to Whitehead, contributors usually have a conversation with the president or a dean who excites them about a particular area of interest.

For example, the Roger and Joyce Howe Center for Writing Excellence was funded by a $10 million contribution from the Howes after they had conversations with Miami's previous president, James Garland, and subsequently Hodge.

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"(Gifts are) virtually always directed toward something specific," Whitehead said.

Contributors generally decide by mutual agreement and in conversation with the administrator they are working with, Whitehead said.

The campaign is also aimed at supporting professorships, an extension of the initial campaign that was announced April 18.

"A professorship is an endowed position at the university that provides a stream of income available to a professor in one of the colleges or schools or an endowed librarian at the university library," Bundy said.

According to Whitehead, virtually all of the new professorships have been made in response to Hodge's campaign to increase the number from 40 to 100 until the campaign's end, which will be June 30, 2010.

"They're several individuals that have made contributions in response to the president's desire to support faculty to a greater extent," Whitehead said. "These are all individuals who feel very strongly about supporting faculty here at Miami."

Each endowment will generate an annual distribution that will be used to support a faculty member designated by the provost and the dean with a salary stipend and programmatic support, Whitehead said.

"When David Hodge arrived, he very much wanted a significant part of the money that we raise to be focused on faculty," Bundy said.

According to Bundy, it is estimated that Miami will lose 50 percent of its faculty over the next five years and competition to replace these faculty members will increase.

"The creation of this professorship program is really our response to try to keep the best and the brightest here at Miami," Bundy said.

Another extension of this campaign is supporting faculty and staff endowments, which was also announced April 18. To date, there have been 15 faculty/staff endowments, with four in negotiations.

According to Bundy, Miami normally requires a minimum of $25,000 to create an endowment. As a way to encourage faculty and staff to support the campaign, Miami is encouraging them to make a contribution of $10,000 to be paid over 10 years, which the university will then match with an additional $5,000.

"It is a way to really increase the number of campus participants in the campaign," Bundy said.

According to Bundy, the goals of this campaign are to create a culture of giving, increase university endowment and create a revenue stream for some of the most pressing needs.

The campaign benefits students in the form of scholarships and by providing a stronger faculty.

"Right now, we have raised $73 million in scholarships for needy students as well as meritorious students," Bundy said.