Wharton's Global Launch of Fundraising Campaign
The Wharton School announced the global launch of the Campaign for Sustained Leadership, a $425-million fundraising initiative. Since Wharton initiated the Campaign in June of 1996, nearly 17,000 individuals have contributed gifts amounting to more than $290 million. The Campaign, the largest ever at the School, will conclude in June 2003.
"Wharton is in the strongest position in its history," said Dean Patrick T. Harker. "Student quality is at an all-time high, and placement numbers are outstanding. Our faculty members are recognized worldwide as being the best in their fields. We can build on our strengths, and it is imperative that we equip ourselves to remain the innovator in business education--to see change coming before it arrives, and to be a key shaping force in business. This campaign effort will assure our ability to remain at the forefront of business schools for the 21st century."
The campaign features six primary goals:
- Continue to build and develop the finest faculty
- Support cutting-edge research
- Remain at the forefront of academic programming
- Create a state-of-the-art academic environment
- Increase scholarships and fellowships
- Initiate new programs in emerging issues
Long regarded as an innovative leader in business education, Wharton has launched a range of pioneering curricular and research initiatives, created a variety of new interdisciplinary majors and joint-degree programs, and instituted ground-breaking educational partnerships with companies, organizations and governments around the world.
Wharton has also been a pacesetter in the use of information technology and has extended its global impact through executive education programs in more than 20 countries.
"If we don't use [our] personal resources to help promote the betterment of mankind--and part of that is through the gifting of Wharton--we have missed the greatest opportunity in our life to repay the very institution that gave us our start; that allowed us to be who we are; that gave us a great opportunity in life to succeed," said Wharton Board of Overseers' Chairman Jon M. Huntsman, W'59 and chairman and CEO of the Huntsman Corporation. To date, Mr. Huntsman and his family have contributed more than $50 million to the School, including an unrestricted gift of $40 million in 1998.
"I cannot tell you how incredibly proud I am of Wharton,"
said President Judith Rodin. "It is on the cutting edge, and we at
Penn benefit so much from the new thinking, the new ideas, the extraordinary
students and faculty at Wharton. This Campaign marks the beginning of yet
another new age in Wharton's excellence, its creativity, and its thinking
about new directions in business education."
Almanac, Vol. 47, No. 10, October 31, 2000