“There may be a point at which at universities come under scrutiny for the frequency at which they conduct these campaigns,” Seiler said.
Texas A&M, located about 100 miles northwest of Houston in College Station, is the largest public campus in the state with more than 64,000 students and one of the wealthiest in the U.S. with an endowment of $11.1 billion. It counts on state appropriations for about 22 percent of operating revenue, down from about 30 percent a decade ago, according to university documents.
Faculty, Athletics
The university said it has already raised $1.9 billion toward its goal in a two-year quiet phase leading up to last week. Michael Young, Texas A&M’s president, said in a phone interview that about 85 percent of the money will be spent on academics, mostly research, financial aid and faculty, while the rest will go to athletics, including helping pay for renovating the football stadium. The university said as much as $1 billion of the amount raised may be designated as endowment gifts.
“I’m very optimistic about this campaign,” said Young, who was hired this year from the University of Washington. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for planning for the university.”
Texas A&M collected $317 million in donations last year, up 25 percent from the year prior, according to the Council for Aid to Education. Its last campaign concluded in 2006, when it raised $1.6 billion, the school said. George Mitchell, a petroleum engineer who pioneered hydraulic fracturing, ranks among the university’s biggest donors, giving more than $95 million, including $20 million in 2012, the year before he died.
L. Lowry Mays, the founder and former chairman of Clear Channel Communications Inc., has with his wife given more than $20 million to the business school, which bears his name.
Prior to a steep drop in petroleum prices this year, Texas A&M benefited from a boom in oil and gas production, with royalties from wells on public lands flowing into its endowment. The money also helped pay for campus capital projects and was used by lawmakers to offset planned tuition increases. Young and others in the industry said fundraising remains robust in the state.
“The people that got the money still have the money,” said Robert Corder, a senior principal at Dini Spheris, a Houston- based fundraising consultant.