"Share The Vision" Ceremony Remarks

Dr. John Deegan, Jr.

College President

          Why conduct capital campaigns? Usually for specific purposes – scholarships, buildings (new and renovations), faculty professional development, endowed professorships. Sometime it seems just for bragging rights and endowment building.

Presently, 22 U.S. colleges/universities have capital campaigns of at least $1 billion each under way. Of these 22, 15 are public institutions, including two here in North Carolina.

          Fifty colleges/universities have endowments greater than $1 billion – 33 are private and 17 are public institutions.

About 10 years ago, while Warren Board was president, a courageous decision was made to launch an ambitious $25 million five-year capital campaign at St. Andrews, the campaign known as “Share the Vision.” I say the decision was courageous because the previous campaign, which was conducted while Tom Reuschling was president, the “Campaign for St. Andrews (1989-93),” had a goal of $12 million and raised $14.2 million.

          The 5-year Share the Vision campaign was courageous for several reasons.

• First, was its size. A financial goal of $25 million which was more than double the amount of the goal in the previous campaign.
• Second, it was courageous because it focused a substantial portion of its efforts on raising money that would be used immediately to sustain the college during a challenging financial period rather than building the endowment or constructing new buildings. Instead, the money to be raised was intended to be used immediately and predominantly for the purpose of providing scholarship dollars to students and to help underwrite the annual operations of the college. The other two areas of the campaign focused on faculty and staff support and on facilities and equipment.
• It was also courageous for perhaps a third reason – the lowest historical enrollment at St. Andrews occurred in the Fall of 1997 when only 477 students were enrolled in Laurinburg.

          While planning for the campaign was under way, another very important event occurred. A former St. Andrews student was lured away from UNC Chapel Hill by Warren Board. In October 1997, Paul Baldasare, Class of 1977, joined St. Andrews as V.P. for Institutional Advancement and the job of helping to oversee the campaign fell into his capable hands.

In the five years between the time the campaign was publicly announced in 1998 and its planned completion in 2003, a number of other changes happened at St. Andrews. In the Spring of 2000, St. Andrews bid farewell to Warren Board who had resigned. Responsibility for the campaign then fell to:

• Doug Hix, who served the college for 18 months as president and to
• Bill Loftus who served for eight months as acting president

          Under both these individuals the momentum of the campaign continued. Finally, in the Fall of 2002, Nita and I arrived in Laurinburg and we had the privilege of leading the campaign during its last planned 10 months.

          While being recruited to the position of president, I recall with great clarity how impressed I was by the remarkable record of generosity I witnessed when I reviewed the history of giving at the college. Quite frankly, I was overwhelmed by the ability this small college had to raise significant amounts of money from a relatively small donor base of alumni and friends. I came away convinced that surely this must be a special place because people obviously believed passionately in the future of the college and would given generously to help sustain her through hard times.

          In the Fall of 2002, as I took stock of the future of the college and worked to chart a new course that would lead to financial stability, I had the audacity to suggest to the Board that the Share the Vision campaign needed to be extended. I suggested, and eventually the Board agreed, that the campaign should be extended for another three years and its initial goal of $25 million should be raised to $35 million. My reasoning for suggesting this action was simple; St. Andrews was too precious to lose but perilously close to failing and we needed both time and money to help turn the college around. In conjunction with proposing a continuation of the campaign, I developed a comprehensive plan to help lead St. Andrews to a position of financial stability and the Board approved both of these in the early Spring of 2003.

          As I’m sure all of you know by now, one of the central features of the plan I proposed to the Board is to grow the college to 1,100 students by the year 2011 because I am absolutely convinced that only through growth will the long hoped for dream of financial stability be achieved. Over the last three years we have made tremendous progress in implementing the 1,100 by 2011 plan, and the evidence of successes is all around us including a 28 percent increase in enrollment, a 46 percent increase in net revenue, and the investment of millions of dollars in capital improvements at the college. And the forecast for next year is a continuation of the same good news. In fact, I expect that our enrollment in September will exceed 800 students, a number that has not been seen at St. Andrews since 1988 and reached only twice since 1972.

          So what is the good news that I have to share with you today? Well, I want you to be the very first to hear our exciting news about the Share the Vision Campaign. At this time I want to ask Mr. David Burns, Chairman of our Board of Trustees, and Mr. Paul Baldasare, VP for IA, to come forward and help me in making this announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to inform you that we have reached and exceeded our Share the Vision goal. I am extremely pleased and proud to inform you that we have raised an incredible $36,603,835! And we couldn’t have done it without your help and the help of many, many others. Thank you.