By Eileen Conrad

UC Santa Barbara’s first comprehensive fund-raising campaign has generated more than $351-million toward a goal of $500-million for projects and initiatives across the academic disciplines.

Of that total, UCSB received $55.3-million in gifts and pledges during the 2005-06 fiscal year from alumni and friends for teaching, research, and capital projects. Philanthropic support, in the form of cash for new gifts and pledges, accounted for $52.3-million this past year, the second-highest cash total in campus history.

“UC Santa Barbara is grateful for the extraordinary support and vision of our foundation trustees, friends, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents who are helping us create a dynamic future for the university with their generous contributions to The Campaign for UC Santa Barbara,” said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. “Our benefactors are essential to our efforts to attract and retain the best professors and most promising students, as well as develop new educational opportunities and facilities to ensure UCSB’s excellence.”

Since the inception of the campaign in 2000, UCSB’s endowment—now estimated at $154.9-million—has nearly doubled. A total of 35 new endowed chairs have been established during the campaign, bringing the campus’s total to 60. Included in that figure are five endowed professorships created during 2005-06 by UCSB alumni volunteer leaders and an anonymous benefactor to help build and support the university’s distinguished faculty.

Two endowed chairs were established in computer science by Karl and Pamela Lopker and UCSB Foundation Trustee Mark Bertelsen and his wife, Susan, all UCSB graduates. Robert Duggan, also a foundation trustee and an alumnus, funded an endowed professorship in organic chemistry with his wife, Patricia. Foundation trustee Gary Wilcox and his wife, Sue, also alumni, established a faculty chair in biotechnology. The anonymous gift will fund a social sciences professorship in demography.

This year’s progress was highlighted by some exceptionally generous donations. They included a record $4.6-million in student support, primarily for graduate fellowships, and $14.9-million in planned gifts.

Individual gifts to the campus increased by more than 8 percent over last year, totaling a record 22,700. Alumni giving also increased substantially, in part due to a $4.9-million planned gift from UCSB alumna Judith Stapelmann that will eventually fund an unrestricted endowment for the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology and operating support for the Sedgwick Reserve.

“The highlights of this fundraising year included significant growth in matured planned gifts, endowment, and graduate fellowships,” said Gary Greinke, associate vice chancellor for development.

Among the large contributions designated for faculty research was a $5-million grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, the Marine Science Institute, and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis for the implementation of sustainable fisheries management practices.

Additional major gifts included $3.5-million from SAGE Publications to launch a interdisciplinary research center for the study of the mind, and $2.35-million from Brian and Patricia Kelly for UCSB’s renowned Koegel Autism Center that will enable the center to expand facilities and services for children with autism and their families.

“Private giving is a critical component of UCSB’s academic excellence,” said John M. Wiemann, vice chancellor, institutional advancement.