Princeton Weekly Bulletin November 9, 1998

Trustees set new goal of $900 million

The board of trustees voted on October 24 to raise the goal of the Anniversary Campaign for Princeton from $750 million to $900 million, with additional funds targeted for financial aid and new scholarly programs in the humanities and life sciences. "The generosity of so many alumni and friends over the past three years and a number of exciting new opportunities have inspired us to do more to secure the future of the University and to enhance our capacity to serve this nation and the global community," said President Shapiro. "Increasing our campaign objective is certainly ambitious, but then so are our aspirations in the fields of teaching, learning and research." The Anniversary Campaign, which extends through June 30, 2000, has already raised a total of $665 million, for scholarships, teaching innovations, new research initiatives, and the extensive program of construction and renovation evident across the campus. The single greatest need to be addressed by the increased goal is scholarship funding. The campaign will seek to endow permanently Princeton's new financial aid policies, which make it significantly more affordable for low and middle income students to attend the University. New initiatives Among the new academic initiatives to be funded by the campaign, the University will establish an interdisciplinary center to explore the manifestations of religion in national and international life and establish a postgraduate fellowship program to bring outstanding young scholars in humanities to Princeton at the start of their academic careers. In the life sciences, the University will expand on the achievements of the Department of Molecular Biology and the continually growing interest of Princeton students in the biological sciences to establish a state-of-the-art center for multidisciplinary research in the emerging field of genomics. In this setting, biologists, physicists, chemists, mathematicians and computer scientists will work together to transform the growing wealth of information on the human genome into real breakthroughs in basic biology and medicine. "With each of these initiatives I believe we will build on Princeton's existing strengths in new and distinctive ways," said President Shapiro. "Our academic traditions stretch back many generations, yet they constantly renew themselves through innovative projects such as these." More than 73 percent of Princeton's alumni have already participated in the Anniversary Campaign for Princeton, which was officially launched in 1995. Among the many campaign initiatives already in use or under development are a new campus center, dormitory and football and track-and-field stadiums; new programs in the environment, finance and Jewish studies; and new facilities for teaching physics, music, the social sciences and engineering.