DePaul University announced the public launch of its $250 million Many Dreams, One Mission Campaign – the university’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign in almost 40 years and its largest ever – at an outdoor celebration and picnic attended by faculty, staff and students on DePaul’s Lincoln Park Campus in Chicago May 20.

(See a video about the launch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVsjBo5OmDY).

The cornerstone of the campaign is a goal to raise $100 million for scholarships by the campaign’s conclusion on June 30, 2014, helping to ensure that a college education is available to future generations of talented DePaul students.

"More than a century ago, DePaul was founded on a dream – a dream of educational opportunity for all capable students," said the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., DePaul’s president.

"The Vincentian priests and brothers who established DePaul did so at a time when higher education was not available to the great majority of Chicagoans," he said. "These visionaries looked around and saw a vibrant and growing city – a city’s whose population was more than 70 percent immigrant, a city that needed an educated populace to thrive."

Today DePaul is the eighth largest private, not-for-profit university and the largest Catholic university in the country, he noted, adding that DePaul has remained committed to providing high-quality educational opportunities to all talented students, especially those from Chicago’s underserved populations – first-generation college students; immigrants; women; and racial, ethnic and religious minorities.

"The Many Dreams, One Mission Campaign theme completely embodies what DePaul is all about," said alumna Mary A. Dempsey, chair of DePaul’s Board of Trustees and commissioner of the Chicago Public Library.

"I, too, was a student here," she said. "My DePaul education set me on a path to an amazing, fulfilling future. Everyone who comes to DePaul brings their own personal dream for their life, and yet each of us is bound together by the Vincentian ideal of serving others, and in doing so shaping the wider world."

Excellence in Education

The remaining $150 million is designated to enhancing academic excellence by building state-of-the-art facilities, hiring and retaining expert faculty and developing and enhancing cutting-edge academic programs that respond to pressing real-world needs.

Funds raised during the campaign’s "quiet phase," which began July 1, 2006, already have been used to help build DePaul’s new Monsignor Andrew J. McGowan Science Building, which houses the departments of chemistry and environmental science. The environmentally friendly, Gold LEED-certified building opened for classes in January 2009.

The campaign also will raise some $20 million to help fund construction of new performing arts facilities on DePaul’s Lincoln Park Campus. The projects include new buildings for the School of Music and The Theatre School.

When complete, the performing arts buildings not only will provide state-of-the-arts teaching, rehearsal and performance space for DePaul’s two nationally renowned conservatory-style performing arts programs, but also establish Lincoln Park as a cultural destination within Chicago.

Off To A Roaring Start

DePaul’s Senior Vice President of Advancement, Mary Finger, noted that fundraising during the quiet phase of the campaign has largely defied the lingering recession. The Many Dreams, One Mission Campaign will enter its public phase with more than $160 million raised, she said, noting that $44 million of the $160 million has already established 197 new, permanent funds for scholarships.

"The last four years have been the best fundraising years in DePaul’s history," she said. "DePaul’s mission of providing top-quality education to students from varied economic backgrounds is one that resonates with our alumni and friends who have stepped up and made generous contributions despite challenging economic times."

Chicago Mayor and DePaul alumnus Richard M. Daley (Liberal Arts & Sciences ’65, Law ’68, LLD ’04) serves as the honorary chair of The Many Dreams, One Mission Campaign for DePaul University. Five university trustees serve as co-chairs:

• Gerald A. Beeson, chief operating officer and senior managing director, Citadel Investment Group (Commerce ’94)
• Frank M. Clark, chairman and CEO, ComEd (Commerce ’72, Law ’76, LLD ’04)
• Douglas Crocker, chairman and chief information officer, Transwestern Multifamily Partners, LLC
• Mary A. Dempsey; chair of the DePaul Board of Trustees and commissioner of the Chicago Public Library (Law ’82)
• William E. Hay, president, William E. Hay & Co. (Commerce MBA ’66, DHL ‘06)

The campaign will be announced at 3:30 p.m. May 20 at a university celebration and picnic to be attended by students, faculty and staff on the DePaul Quad, located on Fullerton Avenue, between Clifton Street and Sheffield Avenue, on DePaul's Lincoln Park Campus in Chicago. 

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About DePaul University

With an enrollment of more than 25,000 students, DePaul University is the largest Catholic university and the eighth largest private university in the country. It comprises six Chicagoland campuses, a dynamic and growing "virtual" campus, and academic and service-learning programs in 40 countries.

Today some 90,000 DePaul graduates live and work in the Chicago area – in its courts and law offices, government agencies, health and social services facilities, cultural institutions, religious organizations, schools, financial centers and commercial enterprises of every kind. Another 48,000 graduates contribute to the economic, social, cultural and spiritual lives of communities around the world.

Media Contact: Paul M. Baker, director, Advancement Communications, (312) 362-5897, pbaker5@depaul.edu.