Chuck Lillis, the Chairman of UO’s new Board of Trustees, wants to raise $2 to $3 billion to get UO back on the AAU track. Gottfredson is not delivering. The word is his style does not go over any better with alumni than it does with students and faculty.
Now UO’s strategic communicators are doing their best to move the goalposts. I’m thinking that Mr. Lillis, who has been very generous himself and has called for the Trustees to develop quantifiable goals for Gottfredson’s next performance review, is not going to be fooled this easily:
Aug 19, 2013: Giving to the University of Oregon surpassed the $200 million mark during fiscal 2012–13, a banner year highlighted by a large increase in gift commitments providing student, faculty and research support. Individuals, companies and foundations contributed 41,460 gifts and pledges helping propel the university’s endowment to a record level. [2013 UO News link here.]
July 28, 2014: For the 2013-14 fiscal year, 77 percent of donors made gifts toward academic purposes. Individuals, companies and foundations made 49,904 gifts and pledges totaling $115,150,868, helping propel the university’s endowment to a record level. [2014 UO Around the O link here.]
From what I can tell the largest donation Gottfredson has brought in so far was $10M – for a new softball stadium. Seriously. More on the UO Foundation here.
Hopefully it’s not a collapse but rather the calm before the storm.
Oregon State managed to raise $108 million for 2013/14 without a softball stadium, so OHSU isn’t taking all the donations away.
Considering how horrible Gott is with people, I think Development is doing a pretty good job. Mike came here because of Lariviere and to work under him. I don’t think he could have anticipated how hard this job was going to be with a failed presidency just before a big campaign. Then the interim and now this pres. You gotta hand it to the development folks. They are raising $ with all forces of nature working against us.