For immediate release: December 11, 2002

Contact: Patricia Coen, (609) 258-3308, pacoen@princeton.edu
or Eric Quiñones, (609) 258-5748, quinones@princeton.edu
 

NEW HONOR MARKS RECORD-BREAKING CAMPAIGN:

58,358 donors named on plaque in Frist

Princeton, N.J. -- Princeton University has installed a monumental plaque honoring the contributors to the 250th Anniversary Campaign for Princeton. The expansive orange-and-black tribute, located in the Frist Campus Center, lists the names of 58,358 donors to the campaign, which raised a total of $1.14 billion for Princeton's programs of teaching, research and campus life. The five-year campaign that concluded in 2000 was the most successful fundraising effort in the University's history.

"Our campaign theme, 'With One Accord,' resonated so strongly with our alumni, parents and friends, and we wanted to salute their generosity and spirit," said President Shirley M. Tilghman. "Recording the names of everyone who gave seemed wonderfully appropriate, and those many thousands of names listed together say something very special about the Princeton family."

Reflecting the campaign's emblem -- an orange ribbon imprinted with "With ONE Accord" -- the plaque consists of five vertical panels, each one shaped like a large, curving ribbon. The ribbons are filled with row after row of names, set in 10-point type and randomly ordered. The names all blend together until the viewer draws close to the plaque, at which point individual names suddenly appear.

"It was important that there be no distinction between donors of large and small gifts, and that a member of the Class of 2000 who had made a first contribution to Annual Giving could be next to a multi-million dollar donor from the Class of 1952," said Vice President for Development Brian McDonald. "We believe that our alumni will enjoy having their own names mixed in with classmates, friends and Princetonians of other generations."

In the bustling campus center -- the collegiate gothic landmark transformed into a multipurpose campus center by famed architect Robert Venturi, a member of the Class of 1947 who obtained his master's from the architecture school in 1950 -- the plaque adds to a lively collection of Princeton iconography, which includes walls covered with tiger stripes and quotations from Princetonians from every era, an extensive exhibit of historical photographs and illustrated materials, an antique bell from the cupola of Nassau Hall, a 12-foot replica of a tiger shark and a fossil skeleton of a saber-toothed tiger.

"In this place that does so much to teach our students about the University's history and culture, we wanted to pay tribute to Princetonians' distinctive tradition of giving back," said Judith Friedman, director of development communications and special assistant to the president for communications, who directed the plaque project. During the anniversary campaign, led by President Emeritus Harold T. Shapiro, an extraordinary 78 percent of Princeton's undergraduate alumni made gifts to the University.

The plaque, which is more than 11 feet wide and eight and a half feet high, was designed by ChingFoster Design of New Brunswick and produced by Design Communications Ltd. of Boston. The plaque can be viewed, in its permanent location in the main stairwell between the 100 and 200 levels of Frist, during regular center hours, http://www.princeton.edu/frist/hours.shtml.

Additional images can be viewed at http://www.princeton.edu/giving/WOAplaque.pdf