BC kicks off capital campaign to raise $1.5b

Boston College has launched a $1.5 billion fund-raising campaign, the largest in its history, to finance a far-reaching initiative to expand the campus, bolster financial aid, and create interdisciplinary research centers focused on pressing contemporary issues.

College officials say the capital campaign, which formally kicked off yesterday, will enhance the university's strengths in such fields as education, theology, and business in an effort to extend BC's reach as an institution.

The campaign aims to raise academic quality and elevate the Jesuit college, now considered among the top 40 institutions in the country, to a new level of prominence over the next decade.

Dubbed "Light the World," the campaign will fi nance a range of new academic and religious programs aimed at producing students who will "be a leaven for good in the world," said the school's president, the Rev. William P. Leahy.

"The world needs Boston College more than ever before," he said. "We have a real sense of mission."

Donations will finance programs and construction projects outlined in the college's long-range plan, which was announced last December.

The plan includes new dormitories and athletic fields on its Brighton campus, the site of the former Catholic Archdiocese headquarters, drawing sharp opposition from neighbors and city officials, including Mayor Thomas M. Menino. Plans to convert a Commonwealth Avenue apartment building a short distance from the campus into a dormitory have also stirred controversy.

City officials are expected to weigh in on the proposed developments later this fall.

The initiative marks a milestone for a university that was nearly bankrupt 35 years ago, but now holds a $1.7 billion endowment. Leahy said the university does not plan to tap the endowment to finance the new initiatives, and expressed confidence that the school's 150,000 graduates will donate generously despite the Wall Street collapse and deep economic unease.

"We're taking the long view," he said.

Fund-raising specialists said that while charitable donations to colleges typically slow during economic downturns, they usually rebound quickly.

"If history is any guide, charitable support should remain quite strong," said Matthew Hamill, senior vice president of advocacy and issue analysis at the National Association of College and University Business Officers. "If you're looking at a five-year campaign, they are likely to hit their goal."

Leahy said the college has already received pledges of $520 million. That includes a $50 million gift from a donor who wished to remain anonymous, the largest gift in the school's history. College officials hope to reach the goal by 2013, the school's 150th anniversary.

BC also hopes to double the number of alumni volunteers, raise the number of alumni donors from 22,500 to 40,000, and secure 5,000 estate gifts.

The college plans to spend $575 million on academic programs; $300 million on financial aid; $225 million on new construction; $175 on ongoing programs; $125 million on Catholic heritage programs and those to produce socially conscious students; and $100 million on athletics.

The college plans to hire 100 more faculty members, reducing the student-faculty ratio, considered a key measure of education quality, from 13 to 1 to 11 to 1.

BC will need to allocate more financial aid to attract low-income and working-class students, Leahy said.

"Doing so going forward is going to require more resources, no question about it," Leahy said. "But the college should, as much as possible, mirror the world around us."