Generous gift Alumnus Thomas M. Siebel, left, and his wife, Stacey, have committed a $100 million gift to establish the Thomas M. Siebel Fund for Excellence in Science and Engineering at the Urbana campus. Chancellor Richard Herman is shown with the Siebels at the June 1 kickoff event for the public portion of the UI’s capital campaign at Navy Pier in Chicago, at which the gift was announced. The most recent commitment from the Siebels is the largest gift in the UI’s history. (See story below.)
The UI launched the public phase of the largest fundraising campaign in its history on June 1 with a dinner and reception at Chicago’s Navy Pier. The event was attended by more than 1,100 alumni and supporters of the UI and kicked off the public phase of the UI’s capital campaign, “Brilliant Futures: The Campaign for the University of Illinois.”
The goal of the campaign is to raise $2.25 billion to support research, programs, facilities, scholarships and fellowships for students and endowed chairs and professorships at the three UI campuses. Of the money to be raised, the Urbana campus is to secure $1.5 billion, the Chicago campus $650 million, the Springfield campus $28 million, and university administration and the UI Foundation $72 million.
The planning phase of the campaign began July 1, 2003, and as of June 1, 2007, the UI Foundation had received commitments of more than $1.1 billion in gifts, grants and pledges, according to Sidney S. Micek, the foundation’s president. The Urbana campus has received more than $800 million – more than 53.3 percent of its campaign goal. The campaign will continue through 2011.
The UI is among 29 American universities seeking to raise at least $1 billion, along with institutions such as Columbia University and Cornell University ($4 billion each), Michigan State University ($1.2 billion) and Purdue University ($1.5 billion).
The $1.5 billion being raised for the Urbana-Champaign campus will support initiatives in five key areas as outlined in Chancellor Richard Herman’s strategic plan: providing leadership for the 21st century, strengthening excellence in academic programs, encouraging breakthrough knowledge and innovation, creating transformative learning environments and ensuring that students have access to the Illinois experience. The plan is to raise $175 million for scholarships for undergraduates, $135 million for fellowships for graduate students, $300 million for endowed chairs and professorships, $525 million for support of research programs and $365 million for facilities, equipment, library materials and other projects.
“So many lives have been touched by the ripples created by the faculty, staff and students of the UI,” Herman said. “A key goal of this campaign is to support their work to ensure that Illinois is counted among the greatest public universities in the nation. We will succeed in this campaign because the spirit of giving at Illinois is ever present in so many ways. Donations large and small will continue to unleash waves of creativity, scientific advancement and human understanding in all areas of life, in all parts of our world, for generations to come.”
The Chancellor’s Advancement Cabinet is leading the campaign for the Urbana campus. Co-chairs are UI alumni Jane Phillips Donaldson, founding partner of Phillips-Oppenheim; Shahid R. Khan, president of Flex-N-Gate Corp.; and Roger L. Plummer, president of Plummer and Associates Consulting and a former member of the UI Board of Trustees.
Other members of the cabinet: Doris K. Christopher, founder and chairman of the Pampered Chef; Richard G. Cline, chairman, Hawthorne Investors Inc.; Roxanne J. Decyk, international directorate, Royal Dutch Shell PLC; Alan D. Feldman, chairman, president and CEO, Midas Inc.; Edward L. McMillan, owner and CEO, McMillan LLC; Steven L. Miller, chairman and president, SLM Discovery Ventures Inc.; Anthony J. Petullo, president and founder, Anthony Petullo Foundation; Edward B. Rust Jr., chairman and CEO, State Farm Insurance Companies; Orion C. Samuelson, agricultural services director, WGN Radio-TV; and Thomas M. Siebel, chairman of First Virtual Group Inc.
The Development Committee of the foundation’s board of directors is serving as the Executive Steering Committee for the university’s campaign effort. James M. Benson, president and CEO of Clark Benson LLC, chairs the committee.
Gifts to benefit Urbana campus
By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor 217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu
UI President B. Joseph White announced two major gifts – one from an alumnus that ranks as the largest in the UI’s history and a gift from a faculty couple – when the UI launched the public phase of its $2.25 billion fundraising campaign June 1 at Navy Pier in Chicago.
Alumnus Thomas M. Siebel committed a $100 million gift – a combination of direct support and an estate provision that will be used to create the Thomas M. Siebel Fund for Excellence in Science and Engineering. The fund will support collaborative work that addresses major problems and opportunities facing humankind, such as the convergence of computational and life sciences and breakthrough developments in energy and human health. Siebel has expressed particular interest in alternative energy to reduce dependence on carbon-producing fuels, the application of information technology to bioengineering and stem cell research.
A $32 million gift from Siebel in 1999 helped construct the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science on the Urbana campus, and a $2.6 million corporate gift from the software company Siebel Systems established the Siebel Scholars fellowship program in the department of computer science. In 2006, Siebel and his wife, Stacey, through the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation, gave $2 million to the UI to establish the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in Computer Science; Thomas Siebel also gave another $2 million to create the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in the History of Science in the department of history in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Siebel earned a bachelor’s degree in history, a master of business administration degree and a master’s degree in computer science at Illinois and was awarded an honorary doctorate. Siebel serves on the College of Engineering’s board of advisers and is a director of the UI Foundation.
Josef and Margot Lakonishok of Chicago have committed to a seven-figure gift that will be used to create the Lakonishok Deanship in the College of Business on the Urbana campus. The gift also will establish the Josef and Margot Lakonishok Doctoral Fellowship in the department of finance and will be used to support faculty research, curriculum development, scholarships, corporate outreach activities and other initiatives.
Josef Lakonishok, a faculty member in the College of Business since 1987, holds the William G. Karnes Distinguished Professorship in Finance at Illinois and appointments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of British Columbia.
Margot Lakonishok served as a research specialist in the department of cell and structural biology at Urbana for 18 years, retiring in December 2004.
This article was imported from a previous version of the News Bureau website. Please email news@illinois.edu to report missing photos and/or photo credits.
