Dean's Message

Dean Willard D. Rowland Jr.

It's hardly a secret anymore. Most of those closely watching CU know that we are gearing up for a major, multi-year capital campaign. Although we are still in its so-called "silent phase," there is every expectation that the campaign will be officially announced some time in 1998.

President John Buechner's theme for the campaign centers around "The Total Learning Environment." He has set an ambitious goal of $500 million, and he has appointed distinguished alumni campaign co-chairs, Bruce and Marcy Benson. Also as part of the preparations, all four CU campuses are being asked to plan for their portions of the campaign, and the chancellors have in turn asked each school and college to develop the unit-specific building blocks of the campaign plan.

This School has been doing its part in those preparations, and at this point it is clear what several of its goals will be. Due to a longstanding, chronic shortage of space and facilities, the School is arguing hard that a building for it and related programs needs be part of the campaign. Likewise, due to continuing softness of state funding for faculty and operations, the School will be seeking private help to increase faculty size, teaching resources and other support for several of our programs.

We will say more about those projects and the exact needs we will be seeking to address in the campaign in the May issue of Bylines. For now let me note two problems we already are facing and with which we need your help. The two issues are closely interrelated. One is the small size of our alumni ranks and the other is about identity and recognition.

The School has had a modest enrollment for most of its history; although it dates from the early 1920s, more than half of its graduates are since 1980. Our master's programs did not begin until the early 1960s, and we've been offering doctoral education in communication and media research for less than a decade. So our alumni base is not only small, it is disproportionately young. That reality means that we do not have large numbers of alumni in high-level media positions around the country and therefore national knowledge about the School is not as widespread and deep as we might prefer.

Altogether, then, here's our dilemma as we move into the campaign. We won't have the large number of senior alumni that fund-raisers look to for the bulk of private giving to a program, and we won't have a critical mass of authoritative spokespersons out there promoting the School and its needs. As a result, the burden of individual giving to help the School is going to fall on fewer and younger alumni shoulders than would be the case in another institution. Also, the School will be asked to find more non-alumni supporters for the campaign than is customary in campaigns of this sort.

It is in that latter respect that we are going to need your strong and consistent support in the months and years ahead. The School has developed strong, well-focused programs of high quality. Its faculty, staff and students are first-rate -- they are nationally and even internationally competitive. Our need, however, is going to be to bring that news, and specific requests for help, to the many non-alums who nevertheless, by dint of profession and inclination, are likely to be interested in the School. This is a networking challenge of formidable proportions. It will require the singing of our song to an ever expanding circle of friends and potential supporters, necessitating a strong, continuing effort by our existing base of loyal alumni and friends.