Blooming & Booming - College of Saint Elizabeth

10
Capital Campaign Update
A HISTORY OF SUCCESS
Over the years, the College of Saint Elizabeth has enjoyed outstanding support from its alumnae/i, trustees, and campus
community, even more so when extraordinary opportunities arise.When the College celebrated its Centennial in 1999,
the College announced a $25 million Capital Campaign to grow the endowment and annual fund and to pay for
renovations to aging campus structures.The Centennial phase achieved success in November 2002, a full year ahead of
schedule, and the unprecedented fundraising success allowed the College to upgrade facilities and provided 12 new
endowed scholarships. It also paved the way for a second campaign phase dedicated to the first new building in four
decades, the Annunciation Center.
BUILDING ON THE POWER OF DREAMS
The shovel went into the ground March 25, 2006 for Annunciation Center, which is indeed one of the College’s most
extraordinary opportunities. Slated to be a dominant feature on the campus landscape, the 44,000-square-foot building
David R. Bixel, President of Semple-Bixel
Associates and Capital Campaign counsel
to CSE since1993, died August 22, 2005.
Mr. Bixel guided the College’s $25 million
Centennial Campaign to success in 2002
and helped launch the Office of Institutional
Advancement’s Annunciation Center
Campaign.
Members of CSE’s Board of Trustees stand side-by-side with Paterson Diocese Bishop
Seratelli, and generous donors of the College as they break new ground on its
Annunciation Center, Saturday, March 25, 2006.
Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins, center, pictured
with event attendees, from left,Tracy Handerhan;
Mary Donovan,'66; Sister Catherine Shea; and
Andrew Cammarano; before Mr. Collin’s poetry
reading on March 21, 2005.
has captured the imagination of faculty and students as construction progresses.The campus awaits the grand opening
in August 2007 and is hard at work planning performances, exhibits, conferences and all the other academic and
enrichment activities to take place there.
Annunciation Center will serve all students, providing a flexible and attractive facility where the teaching-learning process is
surrounded by beauty and enhanced by technology. Home to the Art, Music and Theology and Philosophy Departments,
the Annunciation Center will also feature a 566-set theatre, art gallery, Holocaust Education Resource Center, and be the
new headquarters for the Center for Theological and Spiritual Development. Classrooms, studios and computer lab will
provide gracious and comfortable space for students of all ages and spotlight up-to-date educational technology in the
learning environment.
UNPRECEDENTED SUPPORT
As of June 30, 2006, the College had raised a total of $11.3 million in cash and pledges for the Annunciation Center.
The many major gifts include five in the seven figures.The Board of Trustees surpassed their $1 million goal with 100%
of trustees participating in the drive co-chaired by Alan S. Painter, Richard W. Keelty and Francine Cheeseman Shaw, '76.
Similarly, the Faculty and Staff campaign doubled its participation and dollar goals, yielding well over $100,000.
The greatest portion of the funds has come from the College’s generous graduates. Nearly 70% of all Capital Campaign
donors are alumnae/i.