University College works to gain outside funding

After administrators expressed financial concerns two years ago, Tufts' University College is making progress towards strengthening its financial position.

When the University College was founded in 2000 as the University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS), it received a start-up donation of $10 million from the Omidyar Foundation.

The Omidyar Foundation is funded by Tufts alumnus Pierre (LA, '88) and Pam (LA, '89) Omidyar.

The grant was given with the understanding that that the University College would attempt to raise $20 million from other financial sources by the end of 2005, at when further funding would follow.

According to University College Director of Principal and Leadership Gifts Eric Johnson, some advancement has been made towards these fundraising goals. "The University College has made significant progress in diversifying their funding base, having raised $5 million on top of the original Omidyar Foundation grant," he said.

Contrary to claims that the Omidyar Foundation has not been satisfied with the University College's efforts, Omidyar Foundation Vice President for Civic Engagement Lisa Spinali said that the Omidyar Foundation's investment in the University College would continue.

"We're not going to pull out, that's never been the intention," she said. "We don't know what the numbers are going to look like, but we're committed to the long term success of the University College."

The University College was created by former Tufts President John Dibaggio to inject career-minded students with a social conscience. The University College funds local community projects, and gives individual funding to Citizenship and Public Service (CPS) Scholars to help them create their own projects.

Dean of the University College Rob Hollister said additional funding for the University College is unlikely to come on the scale of the Omidyar Foundation commitment. He said donors would probably be smaller-scale institutions and individuals.

"The nature of our mission restricts and limits prospective investment by others who don't have a direct allegiance to Tufts," Hollister said.

He said the same problem surfaces when local foundations want to partner with the University College on community projects, but not to support the University College itself.

One problem that plagued early University College fundraising efforts was the lack of completed projects to point to as evidence of an effective program. "People like to support initiatives with a strong track record," Hollister said.

At the beginning of the University College, "that was an obstacle, certainly," he said, but that problem has "largely disappeared as programs have proven to be successful."

Those participating in the program agree that it is moving in the right direction. "There is a lot of room for improvement, but it has come a long way in a short period of time," Sophomore CPS Scholar Matan Chorev said. "There is a lot more rigor in the academic program and increased accountability between the students themselves."

"People always try to find flaws in the program," Chorev said. "It's not perfect, it's not even great yet, but it will be. The community needs to be patient with the College."

A board of overseers for the University College was established last year to help with fundraising. According to board member Tom Alperin, the board "further legitimizes the purpose and cause of [the University College] within the overall University."

So far, the board has raised $500,000 -- about three-quarters of which was contributed by board members and one-quarter of which was raised from alumni.

"We have an ambitious goal for this year, but we're on target," board chair Alan Solomont said. "We're really coming into our own in terms of using the board of overseers for fundraising."

The University's next capital campaign will also address University College funding concerns, Johnson said, but the "scale and timing of the campaign have not been finalized."

The University College's money goes not only to maintain its core faculty and academic programs, but also to "support the research of faculty fellows as well as [student] community service and educational initiatives," Hollister said.

Stanford University's Haas Center for Public Service, a program similar to the University College, also received substantial startup funds from a single foundation.

According to Haas Center Director of Development and External Relations Suzanne Abel, the process of development began with an endowment to establish an active citizenship fellowship program for graduate students in 1985, supported by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund and the Haas family. Another endowment to establish the center itself followed in 1989. Overall, $6.2 million was allocated in the initial stages for the development of the program.

Grants to the Haas Center are matched by Stanford as part of the university's capital campaign, Abel said, which has helped the center towards financial security. "When all is said and done in 2008, we will have a $3 million directorship and a $6 million program fund in place in addition to the earlier endowments," she said.

"The ideal goal for any unit of a university that is attempting to influence the institution and its students widely and systemically is a healthy mix of funding streams with multiple and diverse investors," Abel said. This includes "some degree of annual direct support from the university."

Spinali said diversifying from a large initial donation is "a tough thing to do." She said program administrators "are on track -- they're doing lots of great work, it's a very innovative approach."

"In reality, the field for higher education is a pretty crowded one," she said, and that many universities and colleges solicit donations from the same sources.

"It's not as easy to finance as some other programs might be," DiBiaggio said.

Regardless of funding prospects, DiBiaggio said that the key indicator of UCCPS' success would be its impact on alumni. "The most critical evaluation will be what happens to people after they graduate, and does the program have the impact that we wished?"