Gifts and Grants: opening doors

by Barbara D. Kiernan, M.A.'90

A university ... has two special functions. The first is to produce a small number of scholars of the highest rank ... who, in science and literature, or in art, will do productive work of the first class.

The second is to send out into the world a very large number who ... go out from our doors with the balanced development of body, of mind, and above all, of character, which shall fit them to do work both honorable and efficient.

In 2003-04, benefactors of Fairfield University did, indeed, help send forth a large number of students, each ready to make a unique contribution to the world. While the door through which they visited Fairfield University as prospective students may have loomed large, crossing its threshold opened to them a number of attractive entry points to new and deeper knowledge.

Through this rich variety of opportunities, expanded upon below, more than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate alumni of the Class of 2004 went forth to the world far different in competence, commitment, and compassion than when they arrived. How? Through the generosity of alumni, parents, corporations, foundations, government agencies, and friends of the University, who provided benefits that tuition alone could never have afforded them: expanded facilities, additional scholarships, lecture series, research opportunities, advances in technology, and opportunities to serve those most in need.

In some way, every gift expanded the quest for knowledge, the effort to integrate its meaning, and the desire for a balanced life - mind, body, and spirit engaged in service to self, family, community, and the world.

Our Promise: The Campaign for Fairfield University

By the June 30, 2004, conclusion of Our Promise: The Campaign for Fairfield University, Fairfield had reached $137.9 million, exceeding its $125 million goal by nearly $13 million. The 2003-04 fundraising year was marked by continued and significant progress in major gifts, including funds raised during the National Alumni Phase. During the course of the latter, more than 300 alumni served as volunteers, encouraging their classmates to contribute as they had. An insert in the back of this Report highlights the campaign's many benefits to Fairfield University and the students it serves.

Annual Fund

Unrestricted support gives Fairfield the ability to use these funds for day-to-day operations and, as needed, for unexpected expected expenses as they arise. The Annual Fund raises such money as a way to help offset the costs that go beyond tuition in educating a student. The Annual Fund has been a vital component of Our Promise: The Campaign for Fairfield, helping the University identify new donors and add to a loyal donor base. In 2003-04, the Annual Fund raised $2,616,261 in unrestricted funds.

Scholarships

Perhaps no gift opens more doors in a student's life than a scholarship does. Whether recognizing academic achievement, responding to financial need, or both, scholarships, and the education they make possible, are appreciated for a lifetime. In 2003-04, Fairfield University received nearly $3.3 million in new and renewed scholarship funding from benefactors, among them the following:

The Crane Fund for Widows and Children, for the 18th consecutive year, has made a significant grant, $10,000, to support widows seeking to educate children left fatherless by death or abandonment, and who have financial need.

The Thomas and Elsie Deeley Foundation renewed an existing scholarship that grew by $36,000 this year, helping students from Sacred Heart High School in Waterbury, Conn., who have financial need.

The Paul L. Jones Fund renewed the scholarship it has supported for more than a dozen years, providing $50,000 in tuition assistance to Connecticut students enrolled in the School of Nursing.

The William Pitt Foundation supported Fairfield's Community Partnership Scholars Program for a third year with a $45,000 gift. Designed to encourage students from targeted inner-city high schools in Connecticut and New York City to enroll at Fairfield, the program's scholarships support the recipients throughout their Fairfield years.

The Fairfield County Chapter of the Instrument Society of America, with a gift of $39,000, established a scholarship that is available to engineering majors who have a minimum 3.0 grade point average; the School's part-time evening students may also to receive it.

The William G. McGowan Charitable Fund awarded $18,000 to a student in the Charles F. Dolan School of Business in recognition of leadership and entrepreneurial potential, intellectual curiosity, and spirit of innovation.

The William T. Morris Foundation made a $100,000 grant to continue its annual support of a scholarship for students who have financial need.

Corporations heavily supported the Alumni Association's Multicultural Scholarship Fund, which raised more than $639,000 at the Fairfield Awards Dinner in April (see page 103).

Gifts to new or existing endowed scholarships, each of which honor and individual or entity for which it is named, raised an additional $2.9 million in financial aid monies. These included, among others, additional funding to the Dennis and Marcia Dammerman Scholarship, which supports AHANA students, and a new scholarship, the Ernesto Zedillo Scholarship established by The Corrigan Family Foundation to honor the former president of Mexico. Twelve named scholarships were established in 2003-04.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded Fairfield University four years of continued funding for the Upward Bound program. The first year of funding (2003-04) is $341,408, with a total of $1,365,632 expected through 2008. Since 1972, the University has provided the Upward Bound program to students from three high schools in Bridgeport, who are motivated to attend college, but who are either from low-income households or are the first in their families to go on to higher education.

Curriculum and Pedagogy

In 2003-04, Fairfield University received $2,765,144 in government funding, for projects that had an impact on teaching and learning both on and off-campus. Additional funding from the corporate and foundation sectors made possible even further enhancements, some complementary, others unique.

• The Adrienne Kirby Family Literacy and Computer Technology Project completed its 10th year of service in the City of Bridgeport, using student volunteers as literacy coaches to preschoolers in the ABCD Head Start program. In that time, more than 1,000 University students - many of whom volunteered all four years - have had direct and influential contact with children being raised in poverty, and their parents. The F.M. Kirby Foundation, which has supported this project since 1996, sustained this important service-learning work with a $27,500 grant in 2003-04. A separate gift from the Citigroup Foundation made $5,000 available to underwrite the project's Parents as Partners literacy component, funding books for students and workshops for their parents.
• The Center for Academic Excellence provides a forum for faculty to discuss teaching methods and innovations in technology. Under the direction of Dr. Laurence Miners, associate professor of economics, the Center sponsored two faculty workshops on pedagogy: one by Dr. Dee Fink, director of the Instructional Development Program at the University of Oklahoma, the other by the Rev. Vincent Duminuco, S.J., director of the International Jesuit Education Leadership Project. The Center, with its focus on assessing educational outcomes, represents a new way of thinking about teaching and was supported this year by a $100,000 grant from the Booth Ferris Foundation.
• Six faculty members, three from the College of Arts and Sciences (Dr. Robbin Crabtree, communication; Dr. David McFadden, history; Dr. Kathryn Nantz, economics) and three from the Charles F. Dolan School of Business (Dr. Lucy Katz, business law; Dr. Norm Solomon, dean; Dr. Michael Tucker, finance) traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, to serve as presenters in a seminar program between Fairfield and several universities in northwest Russia. The U.S. Department of State awarded Fairfield $135,908, part of three-year, $294,806 commitment intended to help develop curricula and new teaching methods there in English, history, and the social sciences.

Science and Engineering

The tradition of students doing research with faculty mentors continued as it has for decades at Fairfield, supported in 2003-04 by corporations, foundations, and individuals who recognize the power of investing in future scientists and engineers. Among these benefactors were:

• Sikorsky Aircraft, which awarded the School of Engineering $5,000 to redesign an introductory course, "The Fundamentals of Engineering."
• The National Science Foundation, which continued its support of two faculty research projects, with grants of $52,000 and $56,777. In one project being conducted jointly by the physics and biology departments, students working with Dr. Mike Brienza (physics) and Dr. Olivia Harriott (biology) have created new laboratory sessions that teach physics principles using human anatomy as the primary way to illustrate them. Dr. Jack Beal, professor of physics, is directing the second grant.
• In psychology, Dr. Linda Henkel, assistant professor, continued her research on memory with second-year funding of $64,712 from the National Institute of Aging.

The School of Nursing

Successful grant activity in the School of Nursing engaged the energies of many of its faculty and included the following corporate, foundation, and federal grants:

GenRe stepped up to assist the School by providing a $5,000 grant to support its visiting scholars program. Thanks to that generosity, Dr. Nancy Valentine, former special assistant and advisor to the Undersecretary for Health, Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veteran Affairs, has been able to spend significant time on campus during the fall semester. Stamford Hospital contributed more than $7,800 to cover costs associated with the clinical supervision of Fairfield nursing students. A $29,897 traineeship grant from the Health Resources Services Administration provided the resources for Dr. Jeanne Novotny, dean, to award scholarships to non-traditional students.

In the area of geriatric nursing, which is quickly becoming a specialty of Fairfield's School of Nursing, grants from several foundations helped increase the range of healthcare professionals who have access to Fairfield's academic offerings. A $10,000 grant from the Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Foundation has made it possible to develop and launch a new certificate program in gerontology, geared to faculty, graduates, master's students, and practicing nurses. The project director is Dr. Meredith Wallace, assistant professor of nursing, who also received an $8,000 grant from the Oncology Nursing Society Foundation for her study of older men diagnosed with prostate cancer who are engaged in "watchful waiting." This study is measuring the effectiveness of this intervention in terms of the impact of uncertainty on the quality of life.

Also in the School of Nursing, a $35,000 grant from the Connecticut Department of Public Health is allowing the School's Health Promotion Center to conduct lead screening tests in the East End of Bridgeport. Under the supervision of Dr. Philip Greiner, associate professor, the Lead Free Families Program targets children who are at risk for lead poisoning, and provides workshops for parents about its dangers. A $14,000 grant from the Southwestern Connecticut Agency on Aging, also directed by Dr. Greiner, serves a similar goal but with a different audience and purpose: the screening and educating of older adults, who live in or near poverty, for cardiovascular and mental health issues. These two projects involve the University in an important form of community outreach to underserved populations.

The Arts

Open the doors, raise the curtains, and let the magic begin. For children in the region, access to the arts was made possible through the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Its outreach programs included artistic residencies and free tickets to its Schooldays events for inner-city children, each made possible by a second year of funding from the Educational Foundation of America, which in 2003-04 totaled $20,850.

Bringing the international flavor of the arts to the Quick Center has long been one of its goals, effectively managed by Deborah Sommers, director of programming. In 2003-04, she secured grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts ($5,000) to help bring the Moscow Festival Ballet to campus. The ballet performance was part of a 22-event Russian Festival of Arts and Letters carried out over a five-month period, supported by a $14,000 grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. In addition, a gift from the Greater Bridgeport Area Foundation helped underwrite the Angkor Dance Troupe of Cambodia for a three-day residency that included workshops with schools in Bridgeport, followed by a well-attended performance in the Kelley Theatre.

To benefit the Thomas A. Walsh Art Gallery, the Schechter Foundation helped underwrite the expenses associated with bringing the Acropolis Restoration Exhibition with a $5,000 grant to the Gallery. And Cynthia Brumbeck, a creative photographer who exhibited her works at the Gallery last year, donated 10 large Asian images that had been displayed there.

Educating Educators

In fall 2003, the City of Bridgeport subcontracted Fairfield University to implement a U.S. Department of Education grant for music teachers in its public schools. A $319,300 portion of the grant seeks to develop and enhance their teaching skills and music programs. Under the leadership of Dr. Laura Nash, director of classical music in the department of visual and performing arts, the University offered the first weeklong institute for these music educators this summer, and will hold staff development days throughout the year.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Fairfield University two grants totaling $713,427 to establish an Information Technology Center at DiMenna-Nyselius Library.

The National Writing Project funded the campus-based Connecticut Writing Project, an invitational summer institute that brings together successful teachers of writing from all grade levels. Its $43,000 grant also underwrote a Young Writers Institute, a two-week program for youngsters from diverse school systems. The Tauck Foundation supplemented the Young Writers Institute with a second year of funding, awarding a $9,000 grant.

Other initiatives that will ultimately benefit the region included Project TELL: Teachers of English Language Learners, an initiative of the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education at $793,832, this four-year grant (now in year two) is paying the tuition expenses of bilingual educators being trained to teach English as a second language and is directed by Sr. Julianna Poole, SSND. Also in GSEAP, a five-year initiative entitled BiSEP: Bilingual Special Education Professionals has been funded at $845,689 by the same agency, and is directed by Dr. David Zera.

Finally, the University's fourth annual summer conference, "Technology, Pedagogy, and Course Redesign: Fostering Active Learning," took place in June 2004. Directed by economics professors Dr. Laurence Miners and Dr. Kathryn Nantz, the $11,650 state grant came from the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium.

Judaic Studies

Gifts embracing the world-affirming view of a Jesuit education have a powerful impact not only on Fairfield's students but also on the wider community of which the University is a part. Fleet Bank (now Bank of America) sponsored this year's Carl and Dorothy Bennett Lecture in Judaic Studies with a $15,000 grant that brought Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel to campus for a lecture, "The Urgency of Hope." Once again, the Schnurmacher Foundation provided $50,000 in operating funds for the University's Judaic Studies program and the activities of its Center. Among those activities was the annual Jacoby Lunin Lecture that featured singer/humanitarian Harry Belafonte. The lecture, as well as a scholarship and Hebrew language instruction, were funded by a $37,000 grant from the Frank Jacoby Foundation.

Jesuit Mission and Identity

The Mary B. Radwick Trust, administered by former University trustee James Stapleton '54, made a generous gift to establish the Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. Endowment to support the work of the Office of Jesuit and Catholic Mission and Identity.

Current and former members of the Fairfield University Board of Trustees committed $2 million to establish the Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., Chair in Catholic Studies.

To foster the ongoing development of students who participated in Ignatian Residential College during their sophomore year, the Humanitas Foundation awarded Fairfield University a $23,722 grant to establish a follow-up program for these "alumni/ae." Called the Ignatian Companions, the new program will give these students – now juniors and seniors – structured opportunities to reflect upon the insights gained during their year in the living/learning experience, and to develop further leadership skills.