UC Berkeley Gets Donations of $200 Million

Officials of UC Berkeley announced Friday that the school has received $200 million of the $1 billion they are seeking to raise over the next five years in one of the nation’s most ambitious university fund-raising campaigns.

“We are not seeking support for fancy extras, for gleaming new buildings or hefty endowments,” Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien said. “Our highest priorities are to attract and keep outstanding faculty and students, to maintain student access regardless of financial circumstances, and to enhance the campus environment.”

Of the $200 million committed, $25 million was given by an anonymous donor to construct science facilities.

Another $25 million was given by Mimi and Peter E. Haas Sr. and Evelyn and Walter A. Haas Jr. to construct an athletic facility and enhance academic offerings. Peter Haas Sr. is a Berkeley alumnus and chairman of the executive committee of Levi Strauss & Co. He will head the committee charged with overseeing the fund-raising campaign. The remaining $150 million was made up of smaller pledges, Tien said.

The chancellor said UC Berkeley has lost $70 million in state funding since 1991, leading to cuts in faculty and administrative staff and the suspension of many classes.

“Berkeley cannot remain a great university without private support,” he said.

UC Berkeley joins Harvard, Yale and Stanford universities in attempting to raise at least $1 billion from private donors. The university plans to use $105 million of that money to attract new faculty, fund graduate fellowships and faculty research; $60 million to ensure access to qualified, but financially needy applicants, and $30 million to underwrite new courses and research in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Capital improvements include a $40-million student athletic and activity facility, a $35-million East Asian Library and Studies Center, a $10-million music facility and new laboratories for sciences and engineering.