UCLA Raises More Than $3 Billion to Help Ensure Its Long-term Future Among World’s Leading Research Universities

Feb 17, 2006

By UCLA Samueli Newsroom

UCLA Engineering Now In Midst of Ambitious E3 Fundraising Initiative

By M. Abraham

UCLA has completed the most successful fund-raising campaign in the history of higher education, generating more than $3 billion to deepen and broaden the university’s excellence in education, research, health care and community service, Chancellor Albert Carnesale announced today.

Campaign UCLA secured funding used to support cutting-edge research, provide student scholarships and fellowships, attract and retain top scholars in a wide range of academic disciplines, and enhance classroom, laboratory, health care and other facilities. The campaign benefited all sectors of UCLA — from the College of Letters and Science to the 11 professional schools, from physical and life sciences to social sciences and humanities, from law and medicine to engineering and the arts, and from libraries to UCLA Extension.

Campaign UCLA began in July 1995, and closed Dec. 31, 2005, with $3.053 billion in gifts and pledges from more than 225,000 donors. No other single fund-raising campaign by a college or university has generated as much support. Other top research universities in recent years have launched fund-raising campaigns with similar monetary goals, but UCLA was the first to reach the $3 billion milestone.

While the university’s successful 10 ½ year campaign is at an end, the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science recently embarked on its own ambitious fundraising effort dubbed Enhancing Engineering Excellence, or E3 – which targets key priorities for the School so that it may remain competitive with other leading institutions.

Funding efforts to attract and retain exceptional engineering students and faculty with scholarships, fellowships and endowed chairs remain a top priority of the School in order to retain our position as one of the top engineering and science institutions worldwide. The School also hopes to raise funds to build laboratories and classrooms that support cutting-edge research and teaching.

The School already is in the process of replacing its oldest engineering building – Engineering I. Phase one of construction for a replacement building is well under way, and we hope to begin phase two to replace the other half of Engineering I shortly. Among other assets, the new structure will have a high-tech auditorium equipped for distance learning – a facility critical for our continued growth and prominence.

In order for the School to continue to engage in cutting-edge research, to educate the best and the brightest, we must meet these challenges. The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science is really the sum of its alumni, faculty, students and staff, and your contributions and accomplishments are a very important part of our continued success.

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