Why was this six-year period the right time for the college’s first comprehensive campaign?

It all goes back to the institutional plan. Inherent in anything like that are a number of financial strategies...

The sense all along was twofold. One, we could not do everything we wanted to do without a significant infusion of money from friends and supporters. And two, the strategy of solving all the financial things ourselves just couldn’t continue.

How would you classify the goal for this campaign: ambitious or conservative?

I’d say we’re trying to be ambitious and realistic, if that’s possible. Being our first, it’s really critical that we achieve it. So, if you have a good day one month with a gift, you shouldn’t react to that and become unrealistic about capacity. It is an art and a science... I think we’ve been trying to push ourselves, but not push ourselves so far that we would fail to meet the goal.

In your travels to talk with prospective donors, what has been the reaction to the college’s goals?

It’s been very positive. You know you’re going to find a few people that say, ‘Interesting, but I can’t help,’ or ‘I don’t want to help,’ but in many cases, before we even came up with an idea people, were telling us how they would like to participate, and you couldn’t ask for anything better than that.

We haven’t just been on the road asking people for support. We started about three years ago with these leadership briefings to talk about some of the ideas coming out of the plan that we felt we could not manage ourselves.

Why should students care about the Capital Campaign?

One, some of the things they desperately want and need would not otherwise come to pass. And we’re not atypical here; institutions by themselves, with simply tuition revenue, don’t have the kinds of funds to make significant long-term investments...

Tuition revenue basically pays for so many fixed costs, there’s not a lot of wiggle there, even though I know students think it’s high... Students should be interested in the fact that quality improvements are related to external funding, because they allow us to use our money differently.

How can students participate in the public part of this campaign?

First thing, go to the events. There’s an extraordinary group of people coming to campus this week. Figure out how to put yourself in their company... It was a big decision to hold the events here and not in New York City. We really have loads of alums there... But we said, ‘No, this is about the institution—about this community— and people should come here....’

Second, even if students wanted to give $10 or $25 to the campaign, it would be a very good way to start to acknowledge how these improvements come to be.

How will the improvements financed by the campaign make IC a more attractive college to prospective students?

The facilities alone... We’ve been trying to grow the School of Business now for a number of years. Number one, it’s too small. Number two, it’s outdated. It doesn’t match the program. It’s not even a question of ‘Will it look nice?’ More importantly, the faculty, the dean and others can talk about why the space aligns itself with curriculum and group work.

In terms of the Athletics and Events Center, it’s extraordinary that a place like Ithaca doesn’t have one. If we were to build the campus anew today I’d probably put it right in the middle... We need better spaces and more space to serve varsity athletics, club sports and major events.

The campaign also allows for someone to set up an endowment for financial aid, which is going to put some money in a student’s hand. And some money will help improve the quality of the core experience we’ve been working on.

Of all the campaign goals, which is most exciting to you and why?

Oh dear. I have trouble with that because they’re all different. There aren’t any two goals that focus on the same things. Financial aid is important. To me, the state and federal government have walked away from their responsibility there... If you said I had to pick, I don’t think I could. I’m happy I don’t.

How much will this campaign define your presidency?

It is the first one of this magnitude and nature. When I came, I asked about this during the search process... It wasn’t on anyone’s list anywhere, but it was clear to me that the strategy that had gotten us to 1997 would not keep us moving. We couldn’t keep paying for these things ourselves.

Implementation of the institutional plan is what I hope will define my presidency, and the campaign is a strategy for some of that, but not all of that.

What has been the biggest challenge of this campaign?

The fact that we haven’t done one before... The difficult part was the institution doesn’t have a history of this kind of fundraising. That’s why the planning phase has been so much longer. If we had experience with three campaigns, you typically can go public when you think you have 60 percent in hand. But we don’t know when we go public what will be there.