UC Berkeley Fund Drive Reaches a Record $1.44 Billion

Wrapping up a seven-year fund-raising campaign, UC Berkeley announced last week that it has raised $1.44 billion--hundreds of millions of dollars more than the initial goal.

Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl called the sum “the largest amount ever raised by a public university,” but acknowledged that UCLA soon may shatter that record if it reaches its five-year campaign goal of $1.6 billion by 2002.

Public universities around the nation have been raising record amounts in recent years as part of concerted campaigns to supplement the flow of tax dollars allocated by state legislatures.

At UC Berkeley,, the donation drive has endowed 118 professorships, 500 graduate fellowships and nearly 1,000 undergraduate scholarships. Gifts have built a new sports pavilion, upgraded library and museum collections and helped kick-start research centers in neuroscience, bioengineering and biomedicine.