The university has already secured pledges for more than $33 million for the "Defining Moments" campaign, which will be more than three times larger than the most ambitious fund raising campaign in Wittenberg history. Not only will the campaign be a "defining moment" for the university in its ability to ensure its quality programs in the future, it also evokes defining moments among Wittenberg alumni that helped shape their personal and professional lives.
The National Campaign Chairman in Columbus business executive Robert E. Ness, president of ODW Logistics, Inc. and Dist-Trans Company, an interstate and intrastate common carrier headquartered in Columbus. Until last year, Ness also led Wittenberg University as its chairman of the board of directors.
By December, 2001, a successful fund raising campaign will allow Wittenberg to fund the following critical enhancements:
-$23 million to increase Wittenberg's endowment - $10 million to support additional student scholarships, but also to support faculty excellence, educational equipment, library resources, building maintenance and seed funds for new enrichment programs;
-13 million to complete Hollenbeck Hall, a state-of-the-art classroom building already under construction that takes advantage of modern teaching and communications technologies;
-$13 million for the renovation of Science hall, a 33-year old facility, to restore its usefulness for teaching science into the 21st century; -$6 million for the reconstruction of Wittenberg's original building, Myers Hall, as a modern residence hall;
-$5 million for instructional technology and other infrastructure and capital needs;
-$10 million -- as an effort to increase the level of annual giving to the Wittenberg Fund to more than $2 million per year. The Wittenberg Fund provides critical operating resources the university uses to maintain the campus, finance scholarships, and to take advantage of creative initiatives.
