Chapman College Campaign Raises $54 Million

Chapman College in Orange has achieved its ambitious, five-year goal to raise more than $54 million, college President G. T. (Buck) Smith announced Saturday night.

Smith revealed the results of the Enterprise ’86 fund-raising drive during Chapman College’s annual American Celebration dinner at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel. About 1,200 friends and financial supporters of the private college were at the event.

Smith said that as of Saturday, $56,125,237 has been raised in the drive, which began in 1981. He noted that the money is to be used to increase the permanent endowment of the college, as well as for new construction and current operating expenses.

Among the projects planned for the Chapman campus is the construction of a $10-million Learning Center. The proposed 63-foot-tall classroom building has become the focus of a community dispute in Orange, with some nearby residents trying to block its construction by urging the Planning Commission and City Council to reject the plans.

Last month Smith became angry when the Planning Commission rescinded its approval of the college’s environmental impact report on the new building. Smith said the college, which has been in Orange for 32 years, might have to move if the city continued to block its construction plans.

Waiting for Approval

The Orange Planning Commission will meet Monday night to reconsider the Chapman proposal.

The money for the new Learning Center is assured because of the successful fund drive, but Smith and other college officials are concerned that the building’s cost may escalate if there are more delays in getting city approval to build it.

Chapman, with an enrollment of about 2,100 students, is independently owned but affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was founded in Woodland, in Northern California, 125 years ago, moved to Los Angeles around the turn of the century and then moved to Orange in 1954.

College officials acknowledged that “Chapman is still greatly undercapitalized in comparison to some highly endowed colleges and universities.” The college’s current endowment is about $25 million and represents an “extraordinary increase” over an endowment of $800,000 10 years ago, officials added. Some of the funds raised in Enterprise ’86 will used to increase that $25-million permanent endowment.

Chapman had received many bequests prior to the five-year fund drive, including a donation of 239 acres of land in south Orange County 12 years ago from Nellie Gail Moulton. The county Board of Supervisors on Wednesday voted to allow a higher residential density for development on that land, thereby making the land’s total value about $16 million. College officials noted that the south Orange County land is not part of the Enterprise ’86 fund-raising effort.

Successful Effort

Judy Asazawa, administrator for the Independent Colleges of Southern California, characterized Chapman’s fund drive as among the most successful such efforts ever for small institutions in the Southland.

“Chapman set an ambitious goal for itself and achieved it,” Asazawa said.

At the dinner Saturday night, Smith praised the public support that made the college’s fund campaign successful. “When it was announced (in 1981), Enterprise ’86 was the largest such effort ever undertaken by a college of our size,” Smith said.

He said the ratio of dollars raised to full-time students makes Chapman’s fund-raising effort even more successful than those of very large institutions such as USC and UCLA.

During the American Celebration dinner, the college honored George Argyros, an alumnus who has been chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees since 1975. Argyros joined fellow college trustee Warren Hancock and four other board members in starting the fund-raising campaign in November, 1981, with commitments of $10 million.