Old Dominion's first capital campaign, the Campaign for Old Dominion University, surpassed its goal of $47.85 million two years ahead of schedule, President James V. Koch announced at the June 17 Board of Visitors meeting. Campaign fund raising will continue through May 2001. The news comes only two years after the launch of the campaign's public phase. "The remarkable success of the capital campaign reflects the ever-growing reputation of Old Dominion University in Hampton Roads and beyond as an innovative and valued institution of higher education," said Koch.
The capital campaign is divided into three areas: Endowment and Scholarships, Capital, and the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center. The campaign raised more than $2.5 million for academic scholarships and $10 million for endowed faculty chairs and professorships. In the capital category, nearly $10 million was raised for library and classroom technology and over $1 million for an oceanography research vessel. Donors gave more than $3 million for the Virginia Beach Center and more than $9 million in unrestricted gifts.
The largest overall gift - $10 million - came from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. It included a challenge grant for faculty endowments (professorships and chairs), technology and renovation of the Sailing Center.
Virginia Beach resident and retired businessman Theodore F. Constant donated the next largest gift of $5 million to support development of the University Village. The cornerstone of the Village will be an 8,500 seat convocation center, which will bear Constant's name.
The Patricia and Douglas Perry Foundation gave a generous gift to support library technology and a psychology chair. The library was named in honor of the Perrys, both of whom attended Old Dominion. Patricia Perry, a 1989 graduate of the university, serves on Old Dominion's Board of Visitors and Douglas Perry is a member of the Educational Foundation.
Thanks to a generous gift from the Gornto family, Old Dominion opened in January its state-of-the-art Albert Brooks Gornto Jr. TELETECHNET Center, the new home of the university's distance learning program. The center features 10 distance learning classrooms equipped with cameras, computerized faculty workstations and digital electronic whiteboards; a full television studio; multimedia production facilities; editing suites; the Center for Learning Technologies; and campus media center. Albert Brooks Gornto Jr. '56 was a major supporter of the university.
Other significant donations came from: Landmark Communications vice chairman and president - and former Old Dominion Board of Visitors rector - Richard F. Barry II,I for a math professorship in memory of his father, Richard F. Barry Jr.; the Lobeck-Taylor Foundation, for an entrepreneurship chair in the College of Business and Public Administration; and the family of the original benefactor of the oceanography program, Fay Slover, for a new oceanographic vessel to be named for her.
The campaign also received a $500,000 gift from Richard Cheng, a former faculty member who is now president of ECI Systems and Engineering, for a chair in computer science. The Norfolk Foundation made a gift to help purchase an oceanographic research vessel and a NationsBank Foundation gift will support the Entrepreneurial Center.
Current and former Old Dominion employees, as well as members of university boards, combined for a contribution of more than $2 million to the campaign, well over the Campus division goal of $1.4 million. G. William Whitehurst, Kaufman Lecturer of Public Affairs, headed the campus campaign.
In total, the Campaign for Old Dominion University received more than 1,000 gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations. Hampton Roads business leaders Frank Batten and Richard F. Barry III co-chaired the campaign steering committee.
