Was helping raise $43 million dollars from alums for new scholarships. A great way for the man to go out and thank you to everyone who donated.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/124049324.htmlMore than $43 million in scholarship funds have been donated to Marquette University in honor of retiring President Father Robert A. Wild, university officials announced Thursday night at a gala event in which Wild was lauded for presiding over the transformation of the university during one of the most expansive periods in its history.
The amount raised through the Legacy of Leadership campaign, which focused primarily on endowed scholarships, totals $43,692,623, university officials announced at the send off for Wild at the Bradley Center attended by more than 800 alumni, faculty and staff and community leaders.
The amount exceeded the campaign's goal of $30 million. The university also raised $9,359,429 to address the immediate needs of Marquette students, said Mary Ladish Selander, co-chairwoman of the scholarship campaign.
"We've surpassed my wildest hopes," Wild told attendees after noting he wanted to make scholarships a special focus during the final year of his presidency.
More than 2,300 people contributed to the campaign, including current and past trustees of the university who gave or pledged $31.4 million, Venne said.
The donations also included 10 seven-figure gifts, she said.
Wild, 71, became the 22nd president of the Jesuit university on June 17, 1996.
Under his leadership, Marquette opened a new school of dentistry in 2002, revamped and greatly expanded the John P. Raynor Library in 2003, built the Al McGuire Center in 2004 and spent more than $5 million to beautify the surrounding landscape.
In 2010 the university opened its new, $85 million Eckstein Hall law school building and broke ground on the $35 million Discovery Learning Complex, a project seen as a first phase toward a new $100 million engineering school.
"There's been many, many shovels in the ground during Father Wild's presidency," said Ulice Payne Jr., a former forward with Marquette's national championship basketball team and a member of the university's board of trustees.
During his tenure, Wild raised more than $800 million for the university, including more than $200 million for scholarships and several eight-figure gifts that have accelerated campus construction projects, according to Venne.
Also under Wild, undergraduate applications to Marquette quadrupled, from about 5,000 applications to nearly 22,000 for fall 2011, she said.
In the athletic department, Wild, along with former athletic director Bill Cords, successfully campaigned to join the Big East Conference, considered the leading men's basketball conference in the country. Marquette joined the conference in 2005.
Wild has said joining the Big East raised Marquette's profile athletically, provided a connection to East Coast alumni and resulted in more students coming west to Marquette.
During his 15 years as president, Wild led Marquette "with integrity, with grace, with resolve and even humor," said William E. Cullinan, dean of the university's College of Health Sciences.
Wild, who will retire July 31, will be succeeded by the Rev. Scott Pilarz, who most recently served as president of the University of Scranton.
"I'm sure that he's also going to discover, as I certainly have during these years," Wild said, "that all of us working at the university accomplished so many of the good things that we do, only because . . . standing together with us, shoulder to shoulder, are all of you."
