Purdue launches $2.019 billion 'Ever True' campaign

October 9, 2015  


 

Mitch Daniels
Purdue University President Mitch Daniels on Friday (Oct. 9) announces “Ever True: The Campaign for Purdue University,” which sets a goal of $2.019 billion to be raised by 2019, the 150th anniversary year of Purdue’s founding and the 50th anniversary year of alumnus Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)
Download Photo

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — On Friday night (Oct. 9), Purdue University President Mitch Daniels announced “Ever True: The Campaign for Purdue University,” which will focus fundraising efforts across three priorities: “Place Students First,” “Build on Our Strengths” and “Champion Research and Innovation.” The goal is $2.019 billion raised by 2019, the 150th anniversary year of Purdue’s founding and the 50th anniversary year of alumnus Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon.

“Today we unveil a campaign that will elevate our university’s reputation for research excellence and intellectual achievement in a new era of accountability in higher education,” Daniels said. “The legacy of more than 450,000 alumni inspires the entire Purdue family to invest in our students and faculty and foster the contributions that Purdue extends to Indiana and to all corners of the globe.”

The comprehensive campaign, the largest in the university’s history, encompasses the Purdue Moves initiatives – Affordability & Accessibility, STEM Leadership, World-Changing Research and Transformative Education – and reinforces the university’s overarching commitment to keeping a rigorous college education within students’ financial reach. The campaign’s $2.019 billion goal includes:

  • $400 million–$500 million for student support, including scholarships and graduate and professional student support, to ensure that Purdue remains affordable and accessible for a vibrant and talented student body.

  • $400 million–$500 million to fund a 50 percent increase in the number of endowed professorships, headships and deanships, including named positions for early-career faculty – additional support that promotes academic excellence and enhances the university’s affordability across the board.

  • $400 million$500 million to launch the next great era in research excellence at Purdue to expand interdisciplinary research across the university, to further cancer research, and to increase Discovery Park’s impact and visibility as a preeminent research hub solving society’s grand challenges. A principal new feature of the university’s research enterprise will be the Pillars of Life Sciences initiative, focusing on neurosciences and immunology, inflammation and infectious diseases.

  • $300 million–$400 million to improve and better utilize Purdue’s physical infrastructure through renovations, as in the College of Engineering, and new facilities, such as the Wilmeth Active Learning Center, the Ag and Life Sciences Building, and the Honors College and Residences.

  • $300 million–$400 million in unrestricted funds over the course of the campaign, to be allocated where university needs are greatest.
biddinger posters
Download Logo

The seven-year campaign’s silent phase began July 1, 2012. The campaign concludes June 30, 2019. $910 million from more than 83,000 donors has already been raised toward the campaign goal, including:

  • $21.19 million, from 16,109 donations, through Purdue Day of Giving 2014 and 2015. Gifts supported student scholarships and programs, faculty positions, academic units, and more.

  • $1,000 from Krannert School of Management student Lukia Chen to support an organization for students interested in forensic accounting. Chen donated prize money from a business school competition she had won.

  • $1 million from David and Linda Swain to support and sustain four existing scholarships in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the College of Engineering.

  • A planned gift to establish a scholarship endowment in the College of Education from graduate and former Purdue employee Mary Bonhomme (PhD ’00) and her husband, Ray Bonhomme.

  • $15 million from the Lyles family to broaden the School of Civil Engineering’s capacities for learning and discovery and for generating solutions to critical global problems.
biddinger posters

The phrase “Ever True” originates from Purdue’s fight song, “Hail Purdue,” written in 1912 by student James Morrison and memorialized on the West Lafayette campus on the Hail Purdue Wall. (Purdue University photo)
Download Photo

“Every gift to this campaign matters,” said Amy Noah, vice president for development at the Purdue Research Foundation, which is leading the campaign. “Private giving is essential to Purdue’s future, and we look forward to building the future together with participation from alumni, friends, parents, faculty, staff, students and the local community.”

The campaign announcement comes on the heels of several record achievements at Purdue. Fall 2015 enrollment climbed to 39,409, with the largest freshman class (6,812) since 2008 and most in-state freshmen (3,518) since 2010. Four-year (51.5 percent) and six-year (75.4 percent) graduation rates are on the rise, and applications (45,023) are at record highs. And earlier this year, Purdue set records in fundraising ($343.4 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30), research funding ($401 million) and commercialization (178 new patents, 131 licensed technologies and 25 startups based on Purdue licenses). These achievements have been accompanied by a declining cost of attendance and declining loan debt for students at Purdue.

“These achievements are what we focus on when we say Purdue offers higher education at the highest proven value,” Daniels said. “We are going to continue to make major investments in our students, and the ‘Ever True’ campaign will be critical in helping us do that.”

The “Ever True” theme comes from Purdue’s fight song, “Hail Purdue!” The lyrics were written in 1912 by student James Morrison. Today, the century-old song is memorialized on the Hail Purdue Wall, including the well-known phrase, “Ever Grateful, Ever True.”

The campaign will also include Purdue’s regional campuses: Purdue Calumet, Purdue North Central and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

To participate in “Ever True: The Campaign for Purdue University,” visit purdue.edu/EverTrue or connect with #PurdueEverTrue on social media. 

Writer: Charlie Henry, 765-496-2644, cghenry@purdue.edu 

Sources: Mitch Daniels, president@purdue.edu

Amy Noah, 765-494-1704, arnoah@prf.org 

Related website:

Giving to Purdue University Home Page 

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Video clips are available at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxdPFMVWz-l2QTBsTGpFOE1UM3M&usp=drive_web  

Purdue University, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, (765) 494-4600

© 2014-18 Purdue University | An equal access/equal opportunity university | Integrity Statement | Copyright Complaints | Brand Toolkit | Maintained by Marketing and Media

Trouble with this page? Disability-related accessibility issue? Please contact us at online@purdue.edu so we can help.