Quietly but with confidence, top college officials have launched Bowdoin's latest capital campaign, setting a goal of raising $250 million by 2010.
The campaign, which President Barry Mills says is "a campaign about the future," aims to secure financial aid funding for the coming years, increase and enrich faculty resources, and enhance student life with a variety of projects, including a new hockey rink, the planned concert hall in the Curtis Pool Building, and a stronger connection between community service and academics. The Board of Trustees approved the plan during its meetings over Homecoming Weekend last month.
According to Senior Vice President for Planning and Administration Bill Torrey, the report to the Board of Trustees came after an eighteen-month initial planning process, which was chaired by Trustee Bobby White '77. Carol O'Brien, a well-known business consultant with whom the College has worked in the past, had developed a feasibility study and determined that the $250 million goal was reachable.
The campaign will be overseen by a steering committee of about a dozen members, mostly trustees and co-chaired by White and fellow trustee Deb Barker '80. Members will receive their "prospect assignments" this December and will meet approximately four times a year, according to Torrey. Members of this committee, along with Mills, Torrey, and other development officers, will solicit the bulk of the major contributions over the next two years.
The process up to this point has amounted to a "secret that isn't a secret," Torrey said, noting that much of the maneuvering up to this point has gone on behind the scenes.
Torrey hopes to have 50 percent of the $250 million goal pledged after 2 years, with most of that coming from those donors "with the most potential to be generous." After that, the campaign will "go public" in an effort to solicit smaller contributions. The overall intent is to "lift the total number of dollars we receive annually," Torrey said, by looking for new donors and encouraging past donors to be more generous.
Mills and Torrey both acknowledge that ongoing communication with these "key constituents" is critical to the success of the campaign.
"Barry has spent a lot of time communicating [with potential donors] since he came into office," Torrey said. "He's an active development president."
For his part, Mills sees the campaign as a chance to advertise the College's achievements and potential.
"This is an opportunity to tell the story about the College, so that people know us," Mills said.
He sees the campaign's goals as "fitting exactly" his vision when he took office in 2001. Those goals included increasing access to the College and focusing on Bowdoin's core mission of academic excellence.
"The question I ask myself is, 'What am I going to do to ensure Bowdoin's preeminence in the future?'" Mills said.
Mills said he was impressed after his conversations with potential donors about Bowdoin's current institutional priorities, as he sees them.
"People are not reacting as if this were an arms race," he said, referring to how some colleges use major fundraising efforts as an effort to out-perform peer schools. "Rather, they're asking 'Why is this good for Bowdoin?' And that's something to be really proud of."
The President also noted that students have already been involved in the project. Some of the priorities of the campaign, including many of the goals for improving student life, came about after students sought out Mills to share their thoughts. He hopes students will stay involved, saying there are "no more compelling advocates" for the College than its current students.
Bowdoin's last capital campaign ended in 1998. It raised $136 million and funded the construction of Druckenmiller Hall and the renovations to Pickard Theater and Searles Science Building.
Editor's Note: Look for in-depth coverage of the goals and progress of the capital campaign in future issues of the Orient.