Correction: The first reference to President Barry Corey was misspelled as President Correy and did not give reference to his full name. The Chimes regrets this error.
On January 21, the Biola board of trustees approved a $180 million comprehensive campaign, “A Soul of Conviction, A Voice of Courage,” seeking intensified private funding for university programs to support its ambitious target, the largest ever announced.
“Each piece of the campaign is going to be funded by the collective giving of donors at all different levels with all different resources to provide the end goal, which is getting everything together,” said Mark Miles, senior director of annual giving. “We can’t do it without all of those pieces coming together.”
Features of four part plan
There are four main categories, each with a proposed sum goal, as designated in an email from President Barry Corey to faculty. The first and largest category is “student affordability.” The campaign aims to raise a total of $85 million for the Biola fund, from which scholarships are distributed, and for endowed and restricted scholarships, such as athletic or nursing ones.
“What we’re going to be doing on the fundraising side is providing a lot more scholarship money so that even if the price of tuition goes up, the scholarship money increases even more,” Miles said.
The second category of the campaign is “provide facilities that inspire learning.” The $74 million goal will include money for renovations to certain athletic facilities, other campus renewals and money used for the recently completed Talbot East building,. But the major feature is a new, LEED-certified center for science and health. With an estimated cost of more than $36 million, it will be the most expensive construction project to date as well as the largest instructional building on campus, according to Ken Bascom, senior director of facilities planning and construction.
“A new science building is really the single most important facility need on our campus,” Bascom said.
Currently, the plan is for the new building to be located at McNally right across the street from the Rose of Sharon prayer chapel, though that could change. All funding for the building will be completed in five years, then there will be approximately one and a half years of construction, barring snags in building or in the LEED certification process, said Walt Stangl, dean of sciences. The groundbreaking for the building will not actually take place until 75 percent of the total cost has been raised, Bascom said.
“This is a marathon fundraising task, it’s not a sprint. This will take time,” Stangl said.
The third category, “influence the world of ideas,” includes funding used to start the Center for Christian Thought as well as supporting any faculty research and will total $13 million. The fourth category, like the third, has less of an effect on undergraduate students but is dedicated to extending Biola’s global reach and totals $8 million. Through national partnerships and enhanced technology, Biola hopes to further education beyond this campus, making its resources available to a larger number of people.
Seeking donations
Representatives from Biola approach potential donors such as foundations and financially blessed individuals to foster relationships with them. One of the benefits of the comprehensive campaign is its presentation of a package of different areas that are of interest to a variety of people, said Rick Bee, senior director of Alumni & Friends.
“This means that people are able to choose where they want to donate their money based on their own personal passions and interests,” Bee said.
Though it is a five-year campaign, current students will benefit from it to a certain degree. Portions designated for campus improvements, athletic facility renovations and scholarship money will all affect students in the next couple of years, according to Miles.
