NEWS RELEASE, 08/06/98 Record number of alumni and friends make contributions to UC Berkeley in 12 months

By Jose Rodriguez, University Relations

BERKELEY -- Participation in the University of California at Berkeley's Campaign for the New Century reached a record high in the 1997­98 fiscal year, according to figures released today. Gifts totaling $174.2 million were raised. The number of contributions received-nearly 70,000-breaks the record for any year. The dollar total is the third-highest ever for the university-$188.9 million was raised two years ago. The fundraising campaign is now less than $300 million shy of the $1.1-billion goal it seeks to reach by 2001. If support by alumni and friends continues at the current pace, the campus will meet its goal, said Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl. "This is the single biggest fundraising drive ever mounted by a public university not attached to a medical school, and it's critical for Berkeley and for California that we succeed," Berdahl said. "As more and more alumni respond to our appeal, we are building an important base of private support at Berkeley," he added. "To succeed in the 21st century, we will have to count on unprecedented levels of support among alumni and friends." UC Berkeley officials said such a strategy emphasizes building the broadest level of participation by alumni and friends, regardless of the size of gifts. As a public university which has seen its share of state support dwindle, UC Berkeley in recent years has forged stronger bridges to alumni and friends. As a result, the alumni giving rate climbed from 9 percent to 14 percent between 1993 and 1997, an astonishing reversal of historically low levels. Major contributions in the 1997­98 fiscal year included: · $9.2 million worth of instructional software from Viewlogic Systems, Inc. to support the College of Engineering · $7.1 million in equipment from Intel Corp. for a wide variety of academic programs around campus · $7 million from the Bernard Osher Foundation, Gabilan Foundation, and other major donors to expand outreach efforts through the Incentive Awards Program to Salinas and parts of the East Bay, Peninsula, and South Bay · $5 million by Brian '75 and Jennifer '88 Maxwell, co-developers of the PowerBar, to support the new Haas Pavilion and to improve academic life on campus · $3.5 million to honor Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement through support for the University Library from former library employee Stephen M. Silberstein '64, M.L.S. '76. The campaign is partly in response to the decline in state support for UC Berkeley in the last seven years. State general funds now account for a little more than a third of the campus's budget, compared to more than half in 1985.