Alumni give millions to U. over weekend

The sons and daughters of the University returned to their alma mater, this past weekend, to celebrate class reunions -- with checkbooks in hand. Development officials said this week that many of the class gifts to the University, while not reaching the levels reached during last year's 250th celebrations, still broke records. Calling Alumni Weekend "terrific," Vice President for Development Rick Nahm said the festivities were successful "both in terms of number of alumni who returned and the enthusiasm of those who came." Hanna said that reunion gifts to the University this year have totalled over $10 million, $4 million of which will go into the unrestricted Penn Fund, which is used for financial aid, faculty salaries, library books, classroom and laboratory equipment, campus maintenance and programs in research and education. Nahm said that because the University's fiscal year does not end until June 30, these figures probably do not represent the total amount that each class will give. Hanna added that reunion gifts to the Penn Fund have steadily increased to about $6 million in recent years. She said she hopes the University will reach this level this year as well. Often the 25th and 50th reunion classes will choose a special project which their funding supports, Hanna said, from a list provided by the Development Office. To qualify, the projects "need to be broad needs that will serve as much of the [University] as possible." "It needs to have very broad use and appeal," she added. This year's senior class, 25th reunion and 50th reunion classes each selected projects to support. The class of 1991 gave its $12 thousand donation to the planned campus center, as did the class of 1966. The class of 1941 donated money both to a scholarship it began during its 25th reunion and for computers in the Quadrangle's Bodine Lounge. Despite the donations to the proposed Revlon Center which is to be constructed on the 3600 block of Walnut Street, Nahm said that groundbreaking is still postponed due to undetermined cuts in the University's state appropriations. Nahm explained that Alumni Weekend is important to the University because not only are the gifts officially presented, but new gifts may be encouraged. "A lot of the success of Alumni Weekend is the connection of people that will ultimately result in gifts," he said. "We are writing a lot of letters as follow-ups to the weekend."

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