Campaign Illinois

First announced in the fall of 1994, Campaign Illinois, the $1 billion fund drive undertaken by the University of Illinois, is scheduled to come to a successful conclusion on December 31, 1998. The College of Commerce and Business Administration component of the campaign is $61 million. By the end of fiscal '97 the college had raised $49,279,105, counting immediate and deferred gifts. We anticipate that the college will exceed its campaign goal during the 1998 calendar year.

THE COLLEGE CAMPAIGN HAS FOCUSED ON TWO MAIN AREAS, capital improvements and endowments. As the end of the century approaches, we in Commerce face the new millennium with excitement. The generosity of our many donors and the endowments they have built will carry the college into the future with renewed vigor. The accomplishments of the past provide a solid foundation on which we will continue to build, grow, and increase. Thanks to the success of our building campaign we will have a refurbished Commerce West and we are moving toward closure on constructing a new building. The ways to give to the college are many, from the direct transfer of stock or cash to a variety of instruments for deferred giving. A commitment to a deferred gift now can create both income and tax relief.

For information on giving, please contact:

Mark Neville, Associate Dean
for Development
15 Commerce West
1206 South Sixth Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820

Phone: 217-244-6446
Fax: 217-244-8808
E-mail: mneville@uiuc.edu

Campaign Highlights

A major portion of our campaign effort has been dedicated toward improving and increasing Commerce facilities. Our success in this area has been particularly rewarding because at present most new initiatives in the college are constrained by space. And bringing new technology into the classroom poses an important financial challenge that we have begun to meet through the generosity of our donors. These gifts will allow our faculty to integrate technology into their teaching and research, a necessity for us to remain on the cutting edge of business education.

I N THE NEXT FEW PAGES, WE WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOU SOME OF THE MAJOR GIFTS we have received during FY '97 in the areas of capital improvement, and endowments to fund faculty chairs and named professorships, academic programs, scholarships and awards, and program enhancements.

There are three main components to the capital campaign: the construction of a new teaching facility, the renovation of Commerce West, and the modernizing of David Kinley Hall. The first report of success came at the 1997 UIF Spring Meeting in Chicago, when it was announced that Arthur Andersen LLP and Andersen Consulting LLP have undertaken a campaign to raise $7 million for a new Commerce Building. That campaign is progressing.

 

Dedicated in the fall of 1997, the Weston Fountain bubbles in the court-yard next to David Kinley Hall. The gift of the late Janet L. Weston, the fountain memorializes her father, Nathan Austin Weston, who was the first acting dean of CBA. Janet Weston herself was also a part of the CBA faculty, serving as an economics professor for almost forty years.
In the area of endowments, the campaign has been very successful. SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS HELP US ATTRACT THE BEST STUDENTS TO THE COLLEGE AND PROVIDE REWARDS for outstanding performance once the students are here. Need-based scholarships help superbly qualified undergraduates get the outstanding education offered at the University
of Illinois that might otherwise be denied them because of cost. Many of the awards funded by donors are made yearly, based on some combination of academic merit, extracurricular activities, community/college/university service, and need. Generally they range from $500 - $2,500. Here are just a few of the new awards implemented in this last fiscal year.
JOSEPH COMPRIX, THE 1997-98 VICTOR BERNARD MEMORIAL SCHOLAR, is the first student selected for this award. Comprix, a Ph.D. student and graduate teaching assistant, was presented with a $2,000 scholarship, funded by an endowment established in Bernard's memory in September of 1996. A UIUC alumnus (PhD and MAS, 1982 and 1976), Victor Bernard was a distinguished accountant and scholar who served on the faculty of UIUC, as well as at Harvard, University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan, where he was a full professor when he died in 1995. Noted for his devotion to academic accounting and doctoral education, he was active in professional associations and received many honors and awards, including the AAA/AICPA Notable Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award. He was also an invited nominator for the Alfred Nobel Prize for Economics. Anyone interested in making a gift to the Victor Bernard Memorial Scholarship is invited to contact the Department of Accountancy.
FRESHMAN? JUNIOR? WHEN IT COMES TO HIS ACADEMIC IDENTITY, JEFEREY BROOK  has to get, well — arbitrary. "I think of myself as a freshman," says the 19-year-old Commerce student, who entered the university last fall, almost fifty hours of advanced placement credit ahead of most of his classmates. "You say you're a junior and everyone assumes you know where you're going." Brook also entered UIUC as a Matthews Scholar — the first Matthews Scholar to be funded by the Commerce Alumni Association.
Thanks to the association's generosity, Brook gets $1,500 off his university tab — an award that will be renewed each year, provided he maintains a GPA
of at least 3.3. He also comes to U of I with a National Merit Leadership Grant, awarded through N.J.R. Nabisco, and a scholarship from the Sons of Italy. "They flew me and my Dad out to Washington, D.C., for the gala. It was black tie. But it came four days after the prom, so I still had the tux. It worked out pretty well," smiles Brook, whose mother is from a large Italian family on Chicago's South Side.

And that's where Brook grew up, graduating Homewood-Flossmoor High School with all those AP hours, and a towering GPA. ("It was the equivalent of a 4.0, but on a 15-point scale. We just love explaining that to colleges.") He also brought some lively interests along with him to UIUC.
"I was in the economics club in high school and here. Also the Scholastic Bowl Team. It's always fun to play with buzzers. Kind of like watching Jeopardy." But — "Debate was the big one for me in high school. There's no team here. It's hard to give that up," the undergrad laments. "Debate exposes you to politics. And politics is how I became interested in economics."

Having completed his general education requirements by the end of the 1997 fall semester, Brook enrolled in Econ 300 for the spring. He says he chose to major in econ in Commerce rather than LAS because "I thought the business background was more valuable." He plans to take higher-level classes in economics and finance — including graduate-level work — while he's still an undergraduate. So — even for a freshman who might really be a junior, life doesn't have to be that complicated. Says Brook: "I just really kind of want to hang around for all four years."

 

Commerce Alumni Association Sponsors Matthews Scholar

The James Newton Matthews Scholars Program takes as its namesake the young country doctor's son who was, in 1868, the first student to enroll at the University of Illinois (then Illinois Industrial University). Matthews went on to become a physician like his father — and also a widely esteemed poet whose work was praised by Mark Twain.

Established in 1996, with a $1.1 million endowment to the university from Richard and Mary Shelton, the program has been created to recruit the very best and brightest students from throughout the state of Illinois and beyond. Matthews Scholarships are awarded to incoming freshmen who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement in high school — National Merit Scholars, students in the Campus Honors Program, and highly accomplished students from out of state. Recipients must maintain a GPA of 3.3 or higher and make suitable progress toward a degree to remain eligible for the scholarship for all four years. The program is funded through gifts to the university, including permanent endowments, sponsorships, and contributions, and has a desired goal of $5 million.

In the spring of 1997, the Commerce Alumni Association Board of Directors established a $30,000 endowment to sponsor one Matthews Scholar annually in CBA. The association is the first alumni group at UIUC to sponsor a Matthews Scholarship and Jeffrey Brook is the first student to receive this scholarship. Linda Jones, director of development at Student Affairs, wrote of the endowment: "The student who will be sponsored by this fund will learn early on of the importance of alumni involvement in enhancing the educational missions of the University of Illinois . . . It is no surprise that College of Commerce alums would be trendsetters."

Four other Commerce students also currently hold Matthews Scholarships, through the UI Foundation. They are: George Downs, senior, accountancy; David Cason, junior, finance; Daniel Sohn, sophomore, undeclared; and Colleen Jane Gallagher, freshman, undeclared.

Chairs and Named Professorships
  • Arthur Andersen Alumni Professorship in Accountancy
  • Bailey Memorial Chair in Finance
  • Harry J. Brandt Distinguished Professorship in Finance
  • John C. Brogan Professorship in Insurance
  • Commerce Distinguished Alumni Professorship (2)
  • Deloitte & Touche Professorship in Accountancy
  • Distinguished Professorship in Industrial Distribution Management
  • Ernst & Young Distinguished Professorship in Accountancy
  • Stanley C. and Joan J. Golder Distinguished Chair  in Corporate Finance
  • Harry J. Gray Professorship in Executive Leadership
  • Leonard C. and Mary Lou Hoeft Endowed Chair in Commerce and Business Administration
  • Investors in Business Education Distinguished Professorship (3)
  • Investors in Business Education Distinguished Service Chair
  • Irwin Jecha Distinguished Professorship in Accountancy
  • J.M. Jones Distinguished Professorship in Marketing
  • William G. Karnes Professorship in Mergers and Acquisitions
  • William S. Kinkead Distinguished Professorship in Economics
  • KPMG Peat Marwick Distinguished
  • Professorship in Accountancy
  • A.C. Littleton Distinguished Professorship in Accountancy
  • William B. McKinley Professorship in Economics
  • Office of Real Estate Research Professorship
  • Price Waterhouse Professorship in Accountancy
  • H.T. Scovill Professorship in Accountancy
  • C. Clinton Spivey Distinguished Professorship
  • Walter H. Stellner Professorship in Marketing
  • Grant Thornton Associate Professorship in Accountancy
  • James F. Towey Distinguished Professorship in Strategic Management

Deferred

  • Anonymous (four chairs)
  • Caterpillar Distinguished Chair in Accountancy and Business Administration (Pledged over a five-year period)
  • Steven J. and Janet L Bowsher Professorship
  • Robert C. Evans Endowed Chair in Commerce
  • Thomas Gilroy Chair
SUPPORT FOR FACULTY CAN TAKE MANY FORMS, INCLUDING UNDERWRITING FACULTY RESEARCH, SCHOLARLY CONFERENCES, AND SEMINAR SERIES. The campaign has been particularly successful in expanding endowments for faculty chairs and named professorships, which help us attract and retain our outstanding faculty. The reputation of a great research university depends in large measure on the renown of its faculty.

Since the campaign began, we have added fourteen chairs and professorships to the twenty-four that already existed. See sidebar for the complete list.

PROGRAMS AND CURRICULUM HAVE BEEN PARTICULARLY PINCHED in the tight-money environment that has prevailed at the university for the last ten years. We are indeed fortunate to have visionary alumni and friends who are willing to support new initiatives that, while costly to bring on-line, are absolutely necessary for us to remain a major contender among business programs.

WE ARE PARTICULARLY INDEBTED TO DEERE AND COMPANY, an esteemed patron of the college — and a highly regarded employer of our graduates. Deere & Company has shown exceptional generosity with a gift from the John Deere Foundation to equip accountancy classrooms of the future. The Moline manufacturing giant — which has fashioned generation after generation of top-of-the-line agricultural, construction, and

 

 lawn care machinery — has given $600,000 to equip three Project Discovery classrooms.

With two of the classrooms to be located in the refurbished Commerce West and a third in the planned Arthur Andersen Building, these learning spaces will offer state-of-the-art technology befitting the state-of-the-art accountancy instruction of Project Discovery. Each John Deere Project Discovery Center will feature:

  • Fifteen workstations configured with docking stations for laptop computers
  • Seating for an additional forty-five students
  • Two network servers
  • A full-time computer professional to provide training, maintain hardware and software, and offer database support
  • Instructor's podium with presentation hardware and software
  • Database subscriptions and licenses
"The University of Illinois is one of our key institutions for recruiting highly educated, highly competent business professionals. We at John Deere feel that because we benefit so much from the quality programs offered by the College of Commerce and Business Administration — such as Project Discovery — we want to be an active participant in those programs."

- Donald Margenthaler, President, Deere & Company