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March 31, 2010
The OSU Monthly Campaign Update tracks progress toward our $625 million campaign goal, celebrates successes along the way, and, above all, showcases the impact philanthropy makes on OSU students, the state of Oregon, and our world.
Monthly Highlights
As of March 31, 2010, commitments to The Campaign for OSU total $570 million, including nearly $57 million in commitments this fiscal year. Learn more about campaign progress.
A special highlight of the month was crossing the $90 million milestone toward our campaign goal of raising $100 million for scholarships and fellowships.
For STUDENTS
The $100 Million for Students initiative is expanding OSU's ability to make a great college education accessible to talented students from all backgrounds, and to attract many of the best and brightest students to our campus.
• Through the generosity of the OSU family, past and present, 4,000 students annually receive privately funded scholarship support.
• More than 350 new scholarship funds have been created during the campaign.
• This year 2,000 qualified Oregon students with financial need attended OSU tuition free because of the innovative Bridge to Success program.
• Scholarship support goes far beyond OSU's general award fund; all OSU colleges and units have received campaign gifts for scholarships. To date seven colleges have surpassed their campaign goals for scholarships: Education/4-H, Forestry, Health and Human Sciences, Pharmacy, Science, Veterinary Medicine, and, this month, Agricultural Sciences.
• Of the $90 million raised to date for scholarships and fellowships, $73 million — over 80% — has been designated for endowed funds, meaning the impact of the campaign and its generous donors will be felt for generations to come.
To understand the vital importance of scholarships for students today, consider this: in 1980 an OSU student with a minimum wage job could cover costs of their tuition and fees by working full-time for about seven weeks during the summer. Now a student would need to work full-time for five months to accomplish the same goal. And there are still room and board costs to consider.
In the Spring 2010 Oregon Stater, editor Kevin Miller puts it this way: to pay for an OSU education with a summer job, a student today would have to earn more than $1,000 a week. "After taxes and other deductions," he says, "that's about $30 an hour." Working your way through college is simply not what it once was.
While all scholarships and fellowships have a significant impact on students and their families, gifts for scholarships also benefit our broader community. Learn about two examples of scholarships created early in the campaign that already are starting to show their impact on Oregon and the world.
For OREGON: Bank of the Cascades Scholarship
For THE WORLD: Wicks-Street Fellowship
Pictured above: Jeff White, recipient of the McClure Family Scholarship, which supports students in the College of Business
