Building on UCLA's long-term efforts to maintain its momentum as a leading research university that powers the economy and provides direct societal benefits, Chancellor Albert Carnesale announced June 3 an ambitious plan to raise $250 million over the next five years to help recruit and retain the very best faculty and students.
The central aim of the Ensuring Academic Excellence initiative is to generate new funds sufficient to enable UCLA to continue to attract and retain the finest faculty and students. Among the $250-million initiative's financial goals are to raise $100 million to fund 100 new endowed chairs for the recruitment and retention of professors across campus, $100 million to fund fellowships and scholarships in the UCLA College, and $50 million for fellowships and scholarships in UCLA's professional schools.
"This new $250-million initiative continues our work to attract top-flight scholars and students in the face of widening funding disparities between elite public research universities and private institutions," Carnesale said. "While the budget compact with the governor improves the predictability of state funding, the long-term trend of restricted state support for public universities compounds our challenge, demanding a focused fund-raising effort and a rededication to our academic core of faculty and students."
"By performing cutting-edge research and by training the future leaders of our industries, UCLA and the state's other public research universities form a pillar of California's economic prosperity," said Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Samueli, who will co-chair the chancellor's newly formed Competitiveness Council, an advisory and advocacy group of community and industry leaders.
"Preserving UCLA's strength and enhancing its ability to compete is imperative to the economic future of California," Samueli said. UCLA's School of Engineering and Applied Science is named after Samueli, who holds three UCLA degrees and founded Broadcom based in part on core technologies developed with graduate students while he was a UCLA electrical engineering professor.
"Graduate students are the lifeblood of a research university. They are integral to building academic excellence. They help attract faculty, they collaborate as research partners and in the teaching of undergraduates," said Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, vice chancellor of graduate studies and dean of the graduate division. "This initiative highlights UCLA's ongoing commitment to the best and the brightest and builds on the university's reputation as a vibrant locus for scholarship and research. It continues a multiyear, campuswide effort to enhance support for graduate programs with a renewed emphasis on philanthropic resources and a greater focus by faculty in applying for training grants to support graduate students."
In addition to economic benefits, UCLA provides other direct benefits to the state and society at large. For example, UCLA is among the leading providers of credentialed teachers to the Los Angeles Unified School District, and research conducted by the university's faculty and graduate students has led to technological breakthroughs that enhance our quality of life, from the broadband communication of information to the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a medical diagnostic tool.
Carnesale has long recognized and responded to the need to address the challenges facing public research universities in their competition with private institutions for the best faculty and students. Two years ago he convened a campuswide Competitiveness Task Force to recommend programmatic changes to keep UCLA strong amid changing state budget priorities. Among the task force recommendations was to develop a focused fund-raising initiative in support of UCLA's community of scholars.
"An investment in UCLA provides substantial improvements to our quality of life as well as economic growth and stability," said Betsy Wood Knapp, founder and CEO of the private‑equity firm BigPicture Investors LLC and a member of the university committee that helped to implement the task force recommendations. "Community and business support for high-level scholarship in the social sciences and humanities propels creativity and new thought which are critical to understanding and improving our society, our art, our culture and our government."
The $250-million initiative builds on the momentum of Campaign UCLA, among the more ambitious fund-raising efforts ever undertaken by a major public research university. Launched in 1997, Campaign UCLA has raised more than $2.5 billion, exceeding the goal of $2.4 billion well before the campaign's scheduled conclusion in December 2005. The current total includes approximately $287 million in commitments specifically earmarked for the support of students and faculty.
Money raised by the initiative, which runs through 2009, will be tracked distinctly from gifts generated by Campaign UCLA.
"The success of Campaign UCLA allows us to capitalize on our proven ability to raise money specifically for the priorities of attracting and retaining faculty and providing support for students," Carnesale said.
Another effort to strengthen UCLA in its competition for leading graduate students is construction of Weyburn Terrace, an 840-unit graduate student apartment complex with room for approximately 1,400 renters. The project is due to open on the southwest corner of campus in Fall 2004 at an estimated cost of $147 million. Providing modern housing at affordable prices is a critical means of attracting top graduate students, particularly in light of increasing student fees.
Competition for top graduate students is increasing nationwide, with most receiving incentives such as fully paid student fees and housing. Similarly, leading universities also compete for faculty through offers of various incentives.
"UCLA's position as a leader in research benefiting the economy and society at large demands continued vigilance in support of its academic core," said Heather D. Maynard, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry who holds the Howard Reiss Career Development Chair. "This initiative, which will help support endowed chairs similar to mine, is an important expression of the university's commitment to the academic research of faculty and students."
"Securing additional support for graduate education is imperative to maintain UCLA's stature as a leading research university," said Marilyn Gray, a doctoral student in Slavic languages and literatures and an officer with the Graduate Student Association. "UCLA has many attributes to attract top graduate students, but financial incentives offered by universities are playing an increasingly important role in the competition for leading Ph.D. candidates."
California's largest university, UCLA enrolls approximately 38,000 students per year and offers degrees from the UCLA College and 11 professional schools in dozens of varied disciplines. UCLA consistently ranks among the top five universities and colleges nationwide in total research-and-development spending and receives more than $750 million a year in research contracts and federal and state grants. For every $1 state taxpayers invest in UCLA, the university generates almost $9 in economic activity, resulting in an annual $6 billion economic impact on the Greater Los Angeles region. The university's health-care network treats 450,000 patients per year. UCLA employs more than 27,000 faculty and staff and is home to five Nobel Prize recipients.
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