Alumni donate millions to campus

UBC alumni gave more than $1 million to the university through the 1996/97 Annual Fund campaign.

This is the second consecutive year in which alumni donations to the campaign have exceeded $1 million. In total, alumni have given more than $4.25 million to the university in the last fiscal year.

Faculty of Applied Science alumni donated the greatest amount to the Annual Fund at $144,000, with Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration alumni in second spot with $118,000.

The Annual Fund includes five separate appeals: The Alumni and Class Act appeals, and the Faculty/Staff, Parents, and Wesbrook appeals.

"More than 200 faculty, staff, student and alumni volunteers put an incredible amount of work into the Annual Fund campaign," said Geraldine Dunnigan, Annual Fund manager. "There's no question that without the support of those volunteers the campaign could not achieve the level of success it does year after year."

Alumni donations received through this year's Annual Fund campaign reached $1,118,177, comprising roughly two-thirds of the fund total of $1,691,561.

The second highest contribution to the campaign came from graduating students who pledged $230,010 through the Class Act appeal. Student donations through Class Act go toward faculty-specific projects each year.

The faculties of Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences achieved the appeal's highest participation levels, with 80 per cent of their graduating students contributing.

The 1997/98 campaign is already well underway, Dunnigan said. The university recently received a $10,000 gift from an Engineering Physics alumnus in response to the program's 50th anniversary appeal.