The Bowdoin Campaign expects to meet or exceed its fundraising goal of $250 million by June 30, 2009, according to Senior Vice President for Planning and Administration William Torrey.
Now in its third year, the capital campaign has raised $185 million in pledged donations thus far, Torrey said.
The College plans to use the money to improve its academic resources, finance campus construction projects, and bolster its financial aid endowment.
The largest slice of campaign funds?$76 million?will be reserved for financial aid, so Bowdoin can "continue to offer the kind of financial aid we have offered in the past on a more secure basis," said President Barry Mills.
The campaign has pledged $70 million for academic affairs, which Torrey said will help fund sabbatical leave for professors and support the salaries of 12 new faculty positions, of which seven have already been designated.
According to Bowdoin's Web site, Bowdoin plans to hire a cultural anthropologist, an oceanographer, a creative writing expert, a geologist, an Islamic and Judaic studies expert for the religion department, a Spanish and Latino studies expert for the romance languages department, and an additional staff member for the theater and dance department.
The campaign will also appropriate $1 million to the Bowdoin Outing Club, $2 million to the Career Planning Center, and $2 million for an "interdisciplinary institute" that will work to recruit new faculty, develop new courses, and allow professors to recruit speakers from across the country to give lectures on campus.
Funds will also go toward building projects on campus, such as an expanded fitness center and a new ice hockey rink, which is scheduled to open December 2008.
The Board of Trustees, along with parents and friends of the College, has pledged the vast majority of the Capital Campaign's funds. Mills and Torrey have held dozens of events to generate donor interest.
"Most of what we do is have individual meetings with contributors. In most instances we've known these people for long periods of time, and the goals of the campaign are not unfamiliar to them. We've held dozens of events over the last several years all over, from London to Hong Kong to San Francisco," Torrey said.
The campaign will bring better services, more advanced facilities, a richer curriculum and increased financial aid dollars to the Bowdoin campus.
"The overall objective of the campaign is to make the campus experience a better one for students and faculty. A student who is a music major will love the new recital hall. A student who loves the arts will find one of the finest small college art museums in the country," Torrey said.
Over the summer, Colby College increased its capital fundraising goal to $370 million by 2010, making it the most ambitious capital campaign in the state. Torrey said Bowdoin campaign chairs do not feel pressure to raise their fundraising goal to match that of Colby.
"Our goals don't have anything to do with their goals," he said. "We raise what we raise, and we don't look back over our shoulders at anyone else."