To support UCLA in meeting its needs as a world-class public research university, Chancellor Albert Carnesale has announced that the campus-wide fundraising campaign has been extended to 2005 with a significantly higher goal of $2.4 billion.

Already the most ambitious fundraising effort ever undertaken by a public university, Campaign UCLA achieved its previous goal of $1.6 billion six months ahead of schedule in the midst of an uncertain economic climate.

Now the campaign is pressing ahead; its top priorities are bringing in additional private support for capital improvement projects, faculty, and graduate and undergraduate students.

“We attained the $1.6 billion mark because the UCLA family demonstrated a high level of enthusiasm and commitment,” said Robert Wilson, chairman of the Campaign Cabinet, a campus leadership group composed of alumni, community and business leaders, and academic officials. “As we enter a new phase of the campaign, we must build on our momentum and achieve much more to address the university’s unmet and emerging needs.”

Broadening the base of financial support is critical, Carnesale said, since UCLA receives only 21 percent of its operating budget from the state of California.

“While state support has continued to increase, it has not kept pace with growing needs,” Carnesale said. “It has become essential to increase private support in order to offer aid to the most promising undergraduate and graduate students, recruit and retain the best faculty, and provide top-quality facilities.”

There is especially a need for discretionary contributions, both large and small, according to Dennis Slon, associate vice chancellor of development. “About 80 percent of our donations are earmarked for specific programs,” Slon said. “With an increase in discretionary funds, our chancellor and deans can address UCLA’s greatest needs as well as respond quickly when new opportunities arise.”

The university publicly launched Campaign UCLA in 1997 with an initial goal of $1.2 billion. After that target was achieved more than two years ahead of schedule, the goal was raised to $1.6 billion.

As a result of this private support, UCLA is expanding educational and research opportunities for students and faculty in all academic areas through endowed chairs, fellowships, scholarships, and library and cultural collections.

To meet substantial capital improvement needs, Campaign UCLA is securing funds to restore campus buildings dating back to 1929 and construct new facilities for the life sciences and medicine, physics and astronomy, the visual and performing arts, and other campus units.

“Public-private partnerships are making these capital improvements possible,” Carnesale said. “The state provides funding for seismic renovations, but private philanthropy allows us to go beyond the basics to create 21st-century facilities that are technologically sophisticated and architecturally distinctive.”

Specific capital projects include the:
· Westwood replacement hospital, a 525-bed acute-care facility that will become the dominant structure on UCLA’s south campus
· Broad Art Center renovation and expansion, providing new and improved functional space for the School of the Arts and Architecture
· Kaufman Hall seismic renovation, featuring a new theater and program improvements for the Department of World Arts and Cultures
· Court of Sciences Building, including laboratories supporting multidisciplinary research in chemistry, biology and engineering
· LaKretz Hall and Auditorium, a replacement instructional facility for the health sciences
· Physics and Astronomy Building, containing research labs, classrooms, and academic and administrative offices

The fundraising effort also benefits the “UCLA in L.A.” initiative. This extensive network of community partnerships enhances K-12 education, continuing education, health services, environmental programs, business and economic development, and arts and cultural affairs in the Los Angeles region.

In addition, Campaign UCLA will help meet challenges of the so-called “Tidal Wave II” enrollment surge, as offspring of the baby boom–generation enter their college years. The University of California system is aggressively working to accommodate this demand, which will result in an estimated 40 percent enrollment jump at UC campuses over the next decade.