The public phase of a fundraising campaign by Stony Brook University that aims to create up to $200 million in scholarships for qualifying students will launch this month.
“Although the campaign officially launched in 2011, the public phase is set to begin Nov. 21 of this year, along with the launch of a campaign website,” Dexter Bailey, the head of the campaign, said in an email.
Bailey, the senior vice president of University Advancement, added that the campaign is co-managed by the Stony Brook Foundation, a private nonprofit corporation established in 1965, and University Advancement.
The campaign aims to garner more student involvement and further faculty research, according to the minutes from the Oct. 5 University Senate meeting.
To help students get more involved in the process, Bailey has created a council of 12 student advisors for the Office of the President. These 12 students were selected from 86 nominations provided by the faculty, according to the minutes.
“With a target goal of $600 million, $400 million has already been raised” over the last five years, Bailey said in the email. The largest contributions come from foundations, followed by friends of the university and corporations, according to the 2013-2014 annual report to donors, the most recent report. Smaller contributions come from alumni and research partners.
Most of the money raised can already be seen in programs and scholarships at Stony Brook.
For example, the Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women supports the SUNY International Relations and Global Affairs Program, which gives ten qualifying Stony Brook junior women internships with global organizations such as the Clinton Foundation, the U.S. State Department and the United Nations University.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has given a $100,000 scholarship for the seventh year in a row to college graduates without a nursing degree enrolled in Stony Brook’s School of Nursing. The Jim and Robin Herrnstein Foundation has provided money for third-year Stony Brook dental students to provide dental care in impoverished villages in the country of Madagascar.
Anonymous donors gave the College of Arts and Sciences $2.5 million in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, and high-achieving Riverhead High School graduates are given scholarships to attend Stony Brook thanks to an anonymous donation of $1.4 million to establish the scholarship fund, according to the report.
Money has also gone toward funding faculty research in psychiatry, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), according to the report.
Details of scholarships by academic major will be featured on the campaign website when it launches on November 21 of this year and can be accessed at: www.stonybrook.edu/campaign. A full list of donors can be found on the Stony Brook University Alumni Association website. The 2013-2014 annual report to donors can be found on the Stony Brook Foundation website, along with links to previous reports.
