Penn is on pace for a record year in donations for undergraduate scholarships after another successful alumni reunion weekend.
According to Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations John Zeller, 107 new scholarships have been created this year from donated funds.
"We're very excited about the year we're having," Zeller said.
These scholarships had a minimum alumni donation of $100,000, and will all go to help undergraduates pay tuition.
According to Joanne Hanna, the director of development for undergraduate financial aid, some of the scholarships are earmarked for a certain school, such as Wharton, or a certain geographical region, but the majority are unrestricted.
The scholarships were created in coordination with the reunion program, which culminated with Alumni Weekend which occurred May 13-14.
"A lot of the reunion classes take on particular initiatives as a part of their reunion and many of them have adopted creating scholarships," said Bob Alig, the assistant vice president for Alumni Relations, who worked to coordinate the reunions.
According to Alig, the reunion year is an ideal time to convince alumni to give back to the university.
"The single best thing we can do to help people understand how important it is to give back is for them to come back and see things for themselves," Alig said.
The amount of money donated to scholarship programs has been steadily increasing for several years, and according to Hanna almost every reunion class exceeded its goal.
Penn already ranks near the top in fundraising among universities. According to a report published earlier this year by Council for Aid To Education, a group which conducts research on higher education, Penn ranked fourth in the nation in 2005 in university fundraising.
But Penn has been even more successful this year, and Hanna said that it is necessary that Penn keep improving.
In fact, Penn is on pace for its best year yet.
"This year we have raised much more money than in other years," Hanna said.
A big reason for the increase in donations is University Trustee George Weiss' $14 million donation in November 2005 and his challenge to fellow alumni make donations of $2 million or more.
Weiss' surprise donation created a program called the Men and Women of Pennsylvania. Weiss will contribute $500 thousand of his gift to any alumni who donates $1.5 million in order to reach the $2 million level for inclusion in the program.
The idea is that his gift will quickly raise a total of $56 million, which is four times his initial donation.
According to Zeller, Weiss' plan has been warmly received by fellow alumni.
"George's gift raised the awareness," Zeller said. "His challenge for the creation of the Men and Women of Pennsylvania has generated a great deal of interest. We've had a number of individuals come forward and commit to it."
