Archives | Current Campaign News | Campaign Newsletter [PDF]

VCU Launches new Capital Campaign

Virginia Commonwealth University celebrated the public launch of its Campaign for VCU, the most ambitious and extensive capital campaign in the university’s history, at the Jefferson Hotel on Wednesday, April 28, 2004, by announcing its $330,500,000 goal to be raised by June 30, 2007. Chaired by Tom (B.S.’76) and Vickie (B.S.’76) Snead for the Academic Campus and Charlotte and Jim Roberts for the MCV Campus, $187 million has been raised to date, exceeding the $167 million raised for VCU’s Partners for Progress campaign, which ended in 1999.

“This ambitious campaign goal reflects VCU’s ongoing commitment and dedication to serving its students, the Richmond community, and the state of Virginia,” remarked President Eugene P. Trani. “The Campaign for VCU will help us fight the war on cancer, relieve the national nursing shortage, provide our businesses with well trained and motivated engineers and business executives who have great technical and business skills, grant greater access to the fulfillment of the American dream through scholarships, improve patient treatment and care, establish Central Virginia as a national leader in Life Sciences, attract bright and ambitious students and faculty to our community, and enhance our area’s cultural and artistic atmosphere.”

Comprised of 20 mini-campaigns, the Campaign for VCU will build upon the tremendous success of Partners for Progress which added to existing endowed funds such as professorships, chairs, lectureships and scholarships; established VCU’s new School of Engineering, creating a $31 million, four story, 113,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility; helped in numerous capital improvements throughout both Campuses including the MCV Alumni House and Paul Gross Conference Center, the Stuart C. Siegel Center, Biotech Two of the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, the Richard T. Robertson Alumni House, and the School of Arts Building; answered the needs of the university’s students as well as the community by helping to add more degree and certificate options; and created a higher profile for VCU throughout Richmond, the commonwealth and the country.

“Tom and I were so impressed with the scope of accomplishment by the Partners for Progress Campaign that we were truly honored and excited when we were asked to be co-chairs of this campaign,” said Vickie Snead (B.S.’76). “As proud VCU alumni, we are more than happy to give back to an institution which has given us so much opportunity and which provides Richmond and the commonwealth with so many economic, social, health and artistic opportunities.”

As of March 2004, $186,400,000 had been raised during the Campaign’s “quiet” phase, 56 percent of its goal.

“Due to severe state funding cutbacks, it is more important than ever to build the university’s endowments and levels of private support,” remarked Jim Roberts, president of the Theresa A. Thomas Memorial Foundation and campaign co-chair for the Health Sciences Campus. “Alumni and friend participation is more crucial than ever to the university’s overall fundraising efforts.”

“The Campaign for VCU is not just about numbers,” remarked Dr. Trani during the celebration’s closing remarks. “It is about what the funds will do to help the human condition. It is about giving to preserve an ideal, to honor and remember someone’s life and achievements, to make a statement for future generations, to provide a helping hand for those among us less fortunate, to relieve suffering through quality care and leading edge research, and improving our quality of life through cultural enrichment. This is what the Campaign for VCU is all about.”