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Furman University raises $400 million for better quality of education
- To help better out the financial difficulty in decades, Furman University’s supporter have rallied for the past seven years in raising the target school’s capital campaign of $ 400 million that puts the university, and the Greenville community, in a much stable position, Furman officials declared.
- Furman University launched last July 2004 a campaign called “Because Furman Matters” and went public by 2007 that led to almost $225 million guarantee financial aid. Last December 31, officials of the university announced that the said campaign will be put to an ended as the institution raised $406 million already.
- The donations that came in Furman went throughout the governance of the universities past four presidents and Rod Smolla, whose permanent successor is yet to be named, that left last May.
- The report of Interim President and chairman of Furman’s Board of Trustees Carl Kohrt to The Greenville News further expressed that they had not really anticipated as many changes in the university’s leadership. He also quipped that the neat thing about what went through is that the money that people are investing in is for the institution with adequate leadership.
- “But they were giving to what Furman meant to them and will mean to others going forward, not necessarily who was in the chair.” Kohrt says.
- The president of Furman University when the campaign started was David Shi. He was followed by Tom Kazee and then Smolla proceeded by July 2010.
- Officials of Furman states that the success of the “Because Furman Matters” is found to be the largest fund-raising movement that a private college in South Carolina ever accomplished. Furman is among the major liberal arts school in United States. The money raised will be used for aiding programs of the academy, financing scholarships, enhancing the life of the students, renewing the athletic excellence and raising the labors of Greenville’s community.
- The closing of the campaign was set in the particular time that higher educations as well as liberal arts institutions are facing difficulties in attracting students due to the rise of tuition fees and student-loan as well as the high competition towards non-traditional online education available in the internet.
- Addressing the issues will still be up to the succeeding president of the university but necessary cost-cutting have been in line for deliberation to keep Furman’s tuition down for almost 3,000 students.
- Kohrt added that people should look on the cost side to be able to see the cost side if the others would want the help be on an annual basis of sharing the wealth.
- About 27, 250 donors with 78 percent coming from alumni of Furman and 81 percent on the faculty and staff were raised adding to the $ 48 million contributed by the parents of Furman students.
- Kohrt acts as the president of Furman University since further research has been going on in search for a new president. The announcement will be made by the coming 2014 semester.
- The different programs that all Furman’s stakeholders agree with are the revitalization of Poinsett Highway. Renewal of Shi Center for Sustainability that focuses of environmental studies will also be put into action. The Herring Center for Continuing Education will also be financed with the money from the campaign as one of the university’s way of offering various courses to the public.
- Kohrt expressed the university’s gratitude to the generosity of the people and different organizations that have seen the importance of Furman to the nation’s higher education community and contributed in a lot of way to make the campaign’s success possible.
