UC Berkeley Campaign Reaches New Phase

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau kicked off the public phase of UC Berkeley's largest fundraising campaign to date on Friday-an attempt to raise $3 billion.

To display the fundraising campaign's theme, "Thanks to Berkeley," Birgeneau unveiled a 72-foot-long billboard on Dwinelle Plaza, which features more than 400 photographs of the campus's students, staff and alumni.

The public phase of the campaign will run for nearly five years until June 30, 2013, by which time the campus hopes to reach its target.

"We're going to meet that fundraising goal," Birgeneau said. "I'm not even considering that we're not going to."

The campus already raised more than $1.25 billion during the private phase of the campaign, which began a little more than three years ago.

More than $1 billion of the money raised will go to the campus's endowment, which will fund professorships, graduate services and financial aid, said campus spokesperson Jose Rodriguez.

The remaining funds will go toward research, campus programs and capital to invest in future projects.

Many UC Berkeley students present during the campaign kickoff said the fundraiser could be beneficial to the campus if the funds were spent properly.

Senior Ganesh Nagaraj said he would like to see more money being spent on mental health services for UC Berkeley students, an area he said is often overlooked.

"Better mental health care will help us have a better experience at Cal," he said.

Other students said they wanted campus officials to prioritize improving academic programs.

"Before we add more departments, we should improve the capacity of Berkeley-improving areas like bioengineering, that's the future," said sophomore Anil Mahavadi. "Since Berkeley's a public institution, money should go towards students."

Birgeneau said the campus will mainly target alumni in its fundraising efforts.

"Traditionally, our strongest support has come from Berkeley graduates, so we assume that this will continue," he said.

Birgeneau added that many philanthropic foundations have changed their focus in recent years from private institutions toward public ones, and it is likely that the campus will see donations from such institutions as well.

"More and more, they have come to understand the challenges public institutions face," he said.

The money received will be instrumental in maintaining the campus's reputation as the leading public university, Birgeneau said, and will let the university remain affordable to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

"I think the single most important thing is that if the campaign is sucessful, we will continue to guarantee that Berkeley will be accessible to all of our students," he said.

Christine Chen of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.

Tags: FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN FOR BERKELEY