History
Beginnings
More than two decades ago twenty-one alumni of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences decided it was time to get organized. “We had been gathering informally at Alumni Hall after football games for years, but there was no link between those parties and what was happening in the College at the time,” explains Betty Cauthen (M.A. ’55), a retired teacher and widow of former College Dean Irby Cauthen. “We wanted to establish an organization that would involve alumni in the College and educate them about its current strengths and needs.”
Cauthen recalls resistance among some alumni to the idea of an organization solely for College graduates. “Some doubted it would work — they thought it smacked of a ‘State U’ mentality — but others were eager for such a group.”
The Predecessor: Alumni Council of Arts & Sciences
With support from former U.Va. President Frank Hereford, the three College deans, and representatives of the University’s development and career planning offices, the Alumni Council of Arts & Sciences was launched in October 1981. Alumni could participate in four committees: alumni affairs, development, careers, and communications.
The Alumni Council’s agenda — a mixture of social and academic programming and fund-raising activities — enjoyed considerable success for years, keeping hundreds of alumni involved in their alma mater. Members of the Arts & Sciences Council in the early 1990s, led by then president George C. Seward (College ’33, Law ’36), were among the first to recognize the advantages of creating an Arts & Sciences foundation. Mr. Seward and the A&S Council leadership drew up the necessary papers to establish a foundation in 1992, but the A&S Council ultimately was persuaded by the University that such a foundation was not yet needed.
Founding
As the University concluded its successful $1 billion campaign in 2000, a few prescient College alumni began to look ahead. Christine P. Gustafson (International Business and Finance ’82), senior vice-president of Morgan Stanley in Phoenix, Ariz., was one of them. “We had helped the College surpass its campaign goal, but there were many funding priorities still unmet. We saw the need for a formal fund-raising entity — a nonprofit foundation — to which donors could give with confidence, certain their money would go where they wanted it.”
With a major source of private funds in place, the College could take a seat at the University’s planning table and chart its own course for the future. Gustafson, along with fellow alumni John L. Nau III (History ’68) and Alan Y. Roberts (English ’64), obtained approval for and ultimately established the College Foundation of the University of Virginia at a festive ceremony on April 20, 2001. Gustafson served as the foundation’s first president; many members of the Alumni Council became trustees.
Successes
Four years later, the College Foundation has raised over $50 million for the benefit of Arts and Sciences and is thriving. Its thirty-six alumni trustees serve on various committees, including finance and investment, audit, development, buildings and grounds, academic affairs, and the executive committee. Trustees are quick to help wherever needed. Some have served on search committees for senior administrative positions in the College; many have hosted events that bring the dean in contact with alumni around the nation.
The trustees have also embraced an ambitious fund-raising agenda. They work closely with the dean to identify facilities and programmatic needs ranging from endowed chairs and fellowships to scholarships and research funds. In 2002, responding to the dean’s concern that classes could be cut as a result of the state’s financial crisis, many trustees made personal commitments that totaled $150,000. The sum was matched by the U.Va. Alumni Association Board of Managers and helped prevent the elimination of essential College classes and kept class sizes from increasing.
Foundation trustees also help to make capital projects a reality. In an unprecedented partnership with the University’s Board of Visitors, the Foundation helped set the budget and select the architect for the $160 million South Lawn Project, the College’s largest bricks-and-mortar priority. As part of their commitment to helping raise $90 million for the project, many trustees have made leadership gifts to the initiative.
John Nau, College Foundation President from 2003-2006, believes that the best is yet to come. “The College Foundation builds on the strength of nearly a quarter century of work by volunteers, faculty, and staff who, along with current Foundation Board members, believe that the heart of the University must be renewed and strengthened,” said Nau. “The University’s future success will be based in large part on the College’s success.”
