ANNAPOLIS — Two distinguished alumni pledged record-breaking donations totaling $60 million to the university today, each qualifying as the largest contribution to a public institution in the state’s history, university President Dan Mote announced yesterday.
The pair of unprecedented $30 million gifts come from donors who already have permanent recognition for their previous gifts to the university: A. James Clark and Robert H. Smith, the namesakes of the engineering and business schools, respectively.
“This is the most historic moment since the university was founded,” Mote said. He thanked Gov. Bob Ehrlich for his recent budgetary support for the University System of Maryland, but also said, “we can’t depend on the state alone.”
The gifts follow a trend of growing private support for the university — the $86 million received in donations in fiscal year 2004 was about $50 million more than private funds received a decade earlier.
Clark’s gift will go toward scholarships in the engineering school, while Smith’s will benefit the business school and performing arts center.
The funds will go toward the university’s missions of high quality and broad access, Mote said.
“For the university to fully bloom as a national leader among public universities, it needs both philanthropic support and the financial backing of the state,” Mote said.
It is for that reason Mote has said in recent years there is a need for increased private fund raising. In his State of the Campus address in 2003, Mote described a need for the university to shift focus from public to private funding in order to remain competitive with peers.
Ehrlich once again touted an increase in state support to the system this year — the first increase in two years — that totals about $43 million for the University System of Maryland. Higher education officials have said they are grateful for the governor’s funding increase, but many have said further increases are necessary to fully recover from previous budget cuts.
Jim Rosapepe, a member of the system’s Board of Regents, also expressed pleasure with the gift but emphasized there is still a need for healthy state support.
“You can’t substitute private support for public support — you need both,” he said.
Smith and Clark’s donations serve as a kick-off for a large private fund-raising campaign at the university, which will formally begin in fall 2006.
“I want this university to be excellent,” Smith said. “I’m hopeful Jim [Clark] and I can motivate significant support from others.”
As an alumnus who attended through a scholarship himself, Clark said he feels “it’s not only a privilege to be a supporter, but an obligation.”
“It’s a defining moment,” Ehrlich said. “It’s serious money given by people who truly care about the university, about the system, about the state, about the future and about the kids, and it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Susie Farr, director of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, said the donation was unexpected because the funds won’t be spent on the building exclusively. The money will also be used to aid financial aid and technology, which can benefit more students.
Nariman Farvardin, dean of the engineering school, said the funds will help to improve the school and in turn help economic development. The money will go entirely to scholarships, he said.
Business school dean Howard Frank said Smith’s contributions have helped the school to go from what was an “excellent” school to “one of the best schools in the world.”
“The engineering school has been best in terms of development, but my goal is to beat it,” Frank said. “Not by them reducing, but by us increasing.”
In 1998, Smith gave his namesake gift to the business school, and in 1999, with his wife Clarice, gave $15 million for the construction of the arts center.
Clark contributed $15 million to the engineering school in 1994.
Smith and Clark, both university graduates from the class of 1950, previously shared the record for largest private donation with their $15 million gifts.
