UCLA Sets $4.2-Billion Campaign Goal, Largest by a Public University

The University of California at Los Angeles announced on Friday a $4.2-billion campaign, the largest goal sought to date by a public university in the United States.

The Centennial Campaign is scheduled to conclude in 2019, the 100th anniversary of the university’s establishment. The bulk of the campaign’s total—$1.65-billion—is earmarked to build up the university’s research, while $1.5-billion would go toward student aid and faculty support, including endowed professorships. Some $800-million would finance a variety of construction projects. The remaining $250-million would be unrestricted.

UCLA’s chancellor, Gene D. Block, said in a written statement that the campaign would help prepare the university for its second century of “creating new knowledge and embracing opportunities to transform lives and create a brighter future for all of us.”

The campaign’s quiet phase, begun in 2012, raised $1.3-billion in cash and pledges.

The UCLA campaign’s goal tops that of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, which last year announced a $4-billion campaign. (The largest campaign attempted to date belongs to Harvard University, with its $6.5-billion effort, also announced last year.) UCLA’s goal outstrips that of a sister institution, the University of California at Berkeley, whose most recent campaign, which concluded in February, raised $3.3-billion. The University of Southern California, a private institution across town from UCLA, is in the midst of a $6-billion campaign.