College Foundation Celebrates 25 Years
By Lorenzo Perez
FOUNDATION BEGINNINGS
In 2000, a key group of Arts & Sciences alumni spent their Labor Day weekend charting ambitious plans for a more effective way to support the College.
Even with the University of Virginia having just completed a successful $1 billion capital campaign, the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences still faced significant unmet funding priorities. The influential figures who gathered at Keswick Hall that weekend were active members of the Arts & Sciences Alumni Council, a group of volunteers who mixed social and academic programming with some fundraising activities but who did not control the use or application of funds raised from College alumni.
It was there, in a meeting with UVA Executive Vice President Leonard Sandridge, that the idea was born to establish the College Foundation of the University of Virginia, a new nonprofit organization that would seek philanthropic support for the College.
This fall marks the 25th anniversary of the College Foundation’s approval and incorporation. Since its founding, the Foundation has been the College’s primary fundraising vehicle to raise support for five consecutive deans’ most important academic and capital priorities.
“All of us who were on the Arts & Sciences Alumni Council at that time took a leap of faith and put our hearts and souls into making sure that the College Foundation became a reality.” - Christine Gustafson ’82, who served as founding president for the Foundation
She worked closely with two other College alumni, John L. Nau III (History, ’68) and Alan Roberts (English, ’64) to write and present the proposed charter for the Foundation to UVA’s Board of Visitors.
“Chris worked tirelessly to get this off the ground,” said Roberts, who served as the second president of the Foundation after Gustafson’s term. “John Nau was a wonderful advisor for every move we made from the start, so Chris and I benefited from his really expert counseling. The three of us formed a really good team.”
BOV approval was conditioned upon the group pursuing an ambitious fundraising campaign, an effort that culminated in private commitments to endow its programmatic and capital needs. Nine founding donors made commitments of $5 million or more to the Foundation, which celebrated its launch with an announcement ceremony on the steps of Old Cabell Hall and a black-tie dinner celebration in the Rotunda Dome Room on April 20, 2001.
“It was truly a team effort,” Gustafson said. “When I look back on the efforts that we put into this, nothing makes me prouder than the work we did with Alan and John and the University administration. This is something that will last and help the College for generations to come.”
In a 2021 interview, David E. Gibson, trustee emeritus and a founder of the College Foundation, recalled the tours of Old Cabell Hall and Cocke Hall that Alan Roberts led for BOV members to show them the antiquated state of the College’s facilities at the time, driving home the importance of creating a new fundraising organization. “Alan’s tours became quite famous for opening the eyes of the Board of Visitors,” Gibson said.
SOUTH LAWN CAMPAIGN
The first of the Foundation’s efforts focused on funding the South Lawn project — a much-needed expansion of Arts & Sciences classroom and office space.
“I did drag the Board of Visitors on a very hot Saturday afternoon through Old Cabell, New Cabell, Gilmer Hall and the other buildings of the College,” Roberts recalled recently. “And you can be sure I pointed out every cracked window and every wobbly desk leg and everything else that needed repair.”
In a 2020 interview about the South Lawn project, John Nau thanked the original members of the College Foundation’s board and former Arts & Sciences Dean Melvyn Leffler before acknowledging the critical role played by donors who recognized the need for new academic spaces for undergraduate and graduate education.
“I have never been involved in a campaign where the donor base came forward so aggressively and positively. Everyone who had attended the College knew of the need.” - John L. Nau III '68
25 YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL INITIATIVES
Working closely with every Arts & Sciences dean since 2020, the Foundation has raised more than $1 billion for UVA Arts & Sciences initiatives, including:
- FACULTY FORWARD
A campaign which resulted in many new endowed professorships that are so important to recruitment and retention of top faculty. The A&S faculty now includes 132 endowed chairs and University Professorships.
- ENGAGEMENTS CURRICULUM
A remodeled College curriculum featuring small, interdisciplinary, discussion-based seminars that provide all first-year students opportunities for learning and respectful debate.
- DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE
This campaign has since evolved into the pan-University Karsh Institute for Democracy
- CAMPAIGN FOR GRADUATE EXCELLENCE
An ongoing campaign which has already raised more than $100 million for endowed graduate fellowships to support the Graduate School’s efforts to recruit and support top Ph.D. candidates
Christa Acampora, the Buckner W. Clay Professor of Philosophy and dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, said it was clearly evident the impact the Foundation had in creating the essential environment and conditions to support the College’s liberal arts mission when she arrived at UVA three years ago.
“I am enormously grateful to the founding trustees and all those following them for having the wisdom and courage to create the College Foundation. Former Foundation president Gene Schutt and the Foundation’s team have been instrumental in connecting me to so many of our passionate, dedicated alumni.” - Christa Acampora, Arts & Sciences Dean
“As we celebrate this milestone, we honor not only the Foundation’s legacy but also the generosity of alumni and donors whose commitment ensures that the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences continues to thrive as a place of discovery, dialogue and transformation.”