Engineering Development

Private Support Gives College 'Margin of Excellence'

Engineering Development Director Paul Bauman sits in the Clark Conference Room with development staff Nancy Ollanik, Emma Dee and Mary Musilek.

This issue of CUEngineering highlights several of the college's outstanding graduates. Beyond their professional careers, these creative individuals are also active supporters of the college in many different ways. Some give precious time and energy on departmental advisory boards. Others have been giving back to the college through their generous financial support for programs, faculty and students, and new facilities.

Engineers as a professional group are very philanthropic. Here at CU-Boulder, the college is ahead of schedule on its seven-year goal of raising $54.1 million, the most ambitious effort to raise private support in the history of the college. Engineering alumni have been very responsive to our annual mail-based appeals for support. The number of alumni responding has increased by 31 percent over the last year, while dollars raised have increased by 113 percent!

We will celebrate our successes on May 12 when we break ground for the Discovery Learning Center. On May 13, we have organized a Conference on Discovery Learning for our key corporate partners and college leaders. Our goal is to create environments in which undergraduate and graduate students can engage in discovery learning, where industry partners are both teachers and learners. Discovery Learning projects will allow all stakeholders to participate in advanced research in which industry partners will provide real-world problems and collaborate with us to benefit society.

The engineering community here at CU is very grateful for your support. With legal limits on funding from the State of Colorado and efforts to limit tuition increases, private support is critical for the college to provide an excellent engineering education for all our students. As Bill Caile, 1965 civil engineering graduate and chair of the college's Resource Development Committee points out, "Private dollars are the margin of excellence" to complement public sources of support.

The engineering development team is ready to assist you in making tax-deductible gifts to the college. We can also help you with your private estate plans if you are considering a planned gift. You can give through the following ways:

• Outright Gifts—can be made out of income or assets (such as stocks, securities, real estate, IRAs, etc) and are the least complex of all gift techniques.

• Deferred and Life Income Gifts—This method allows you to transfer the asset, but defer the benefit to the organization. Consider a life income gift such as investing in the pooled income fund, a gift annuity or a charitable remainder trust.

• Bequests—A charitable bequest can take several forms: a specific bequest, a general bequest, a residual bequest, and a contingent bequest.

Please call us, send an e-mail, or stop by the college and we would be delighted to show you some of the investment opportunities here in engineering.