University of Illinois

Speeches and statements

U. of I. Campaign and Illinois' Brilliant Futures

President B. Joseph White

Published in the commentary sections of the June 17, 2007 Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, June 19, 2007 Springfield Journal-Register, July 10, 2007 Chicago Daily Southtown and July 15, 2007 Rockford Register Star.

You may have seen or heard news reports about the University of Illinois' recently announced $2.25 billion fund-raising effort. I want to explain and put into context for students, their families and the citizens of the State of Illinois what we're calling our "Brilliant Futures" campaign.

For 140 years, the U of I has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to achieve their dreams through a great education at an affordable price. It started at our Urbana-Champaign campus, and the tradition has continued for decades at our Chicago campus and for the past dozen years in Springfield.

The benefits of the U of I also have accrued to the state and its citizens' prosperity. Since arriving here in 2005 I have frequently said the U of I is the state's most valuable asset in creating a prosperous future.

Our graduates invigorate Illinois companies and organizations and start new enterprises. Our researchers make discoveries in basic science and technology that create whole new industries and the jobs that follow. We enrich the state's culture with our writers, thinkers, artists and commentators.

Our Chicago campus, which aims to be the best urban university in the nation, is deeply engaged with that great city and provides university-quality health care to the poor and educates more doctors than any other university in the country. The students at our Springfield campus focus on the liberal arts in the public-policy laboratory of our state's capital.

We at the U of I do things on a large scale. Consider that we educate more students at our Urbana campus alone than Northwestern, the University of Chicago and Notre Dame — combined. Consider the 22 Nobel Prizes our faculty and alumni have won. Consider the Green Revolution, the first Web browser, light-emitting diodes, biofuels and even YouTube.

So, with our undeniable record of success, why this fund-raising campaign now?

The purpose of our campaign is simple: To support our faculty, thus ensuring excellence, and to support our students, thus ensuring access and affordability.

I have spoken consistently about the need for a new compact to ensure the quality of and access to the University of Illinois. The state, tuition payers and their families, our own faculty and private donors must all do their parts to support a great institution. Make no mistake: State support for U of I is more important, not less, in the context of our campaign. Private donors will not step up if the state steps back

Right now, we earn $1 billion annually in state support, $600 million in tuition from students and their families and $770 million that our faculty win in competitive research grants and contracts.

Our campaign aims to raise $2.25 billion from private donors — our alumni and friends as well as corporations and foundations — to provide the crucial margin of resources that separates the great universities from the good.

Students and faculty are the heart and soul of the university, so this campaign is about scholarships for the students and support for faculty excellence in teaching, research and service.

The state and the people of Illinois can, indeed, have a brilliant future. It will be built on a foundation of educated people and knowledge to solve humankind's most pressing problems. Our mission at the University of Illinois is to provide that foundation.

So, ultimately, the success of the people and the state of Illinois is what our "Brilliant Futures" campaign is all about.

B. Joseph White is the 16th president of the University of Illinois. He is a former business school dean and the author of The Nature of Leadership: Reptiles, Mammals, and the Challenge of Becoming a Great Leader (AMACOM, 2007).