Campaign for new engineering building gains steam

Chris DuPré

Mechanical and industrial engineering alumni sure can build positive momentum.

Create the Future - The Wisconsin Campaign (logo). A creative fund-raising strategy has resulted in more than 1,300 new pledges supporting the renovation and expansion of UW–Madison’s 73-year-old Mechanical Engineering Building.

The $50.6 million Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Building project is the top priority of the College of Engineering in the university’s $1.5 billion capital fund drive, Create The Future: The Wisconsin Campaign. The state has committed $23 million to the project, and the remaining $27.6 million must come from alumni, companies and other sources.

To build awareness and support, the UW Foundation recently mailed a DVD about the building project to 4,000 mechanical engineering and industrial engineering alumni donors. The video also was posted on the college’s development Web site, http://www.engr.wisc.edu/services/development/.

Next, a letter from College of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy was sent to 10,000 mechanical and industrial engineering alumni expressing the importance of having better facilities for student learning and research.

UW Foundation Telefund students have made follow-up phone calls to the alumni, asking for special pledges to be fulfilled over a three- to five-year period. In four weeks, nearly $400,000 in new gifts and pledges has been raised, and several more evenings of calling are scheduled.

“This building project is absolutely vital to the future of our mechanical engineering and industrial engineering programs,” says J. Lance Cavanaugh, senior director of development for the College of Engineering. “In this campaign, we want to ensure that our alumni are well-informed about this project and that we effectively follow up to ask for their support.”

As Peercy wrote in his letter to the alumni: “We can be very proud of our alma mater’s strong national and international reputation for excellence. Now we have the opportunity to give back and invest in the continued advancement of our university.”