College presidents have been stepping up to make contributions to campaigns they are leading, with three chief executives hitting the million-dollar mark in personal gifts to their institutions.
Most recently, David E. Shi, Furman University’s president, got his university’s $400-million campaign rolling with the announcement of a $1-million pledge. Making previous $1-million contributions to their universities were Nancy Cantor, Syracuse University’s chancellor, and Nido Qubein, president of High Point University.
Presidents are making contributions in other ways. One of the largest-ever presidential windfalls came from Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist and chancellor of Liberty University who died from heart troubles in May.
Liberty officials say the university will receive a payout of $29-million from life-insurance policies purchased by Mr. Falwell. The money will help erase Liberty’s substantial debt, leaving up to $8-million for its endowment.
“Dad wanted to leave the university debt free,” Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty’s chancellor, said in a written statement, adding that his father “used to joke that, when he kicked the bucket, Liberty would be in high cotton.”
Also using personal clout to enhance institutional finances is Richard F. Celeste, president of Colorado College and the former governor of Ohio.
Mr. Celeste was hoping to ignore his 70th birthday, which arrived on November 11. But he relented when his wife, Jacqueline Lundquist, suggested that they honor the milestone with a $2-million fund-raising drive for a scholarship in his name. Ms. Lundquist sent the pitch to 700 of Mr. Celeste’s friends and former colleagues.
Reached by phone, Ms. Lundquist said she had reeled in $500,000 so far, with “only one-quarter of the precincts reporting.” Although a 25-percent response rate is impressive for a fund-raising drive, she hopes to receive many more checks.
Ms. Lundquist says Mr. Celeste’s campus birthday party was also a success. About 150 of his friends mingled with 30 Colorado College students. Mr. Celeste capped the event with an emotional speech.
“It was too bad they wrote the checks before the speech,” Ms. Lundquist says, because “we would’ve gotten a lot more after it.”
http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Volume 54, Issue 14, Page A22
