Promotional event provides freebies at Horseshoe gathering
USC is well on its way to raising $1 billion by 2015, according to university officials. That figure might not resonate much with current students, but at least it meant free ice cream on the Horseshoe Tuesday afternoon.
Administrators, faculty and students celebrated the campus kickoff of Carolina’s Promise, USC’s most ambitious capital campaign yet, that officially started November 2011. Former Barnum & Bailey ringmaster and USC alumnus Tyrone McFarlan led a short ceremony in the center of the Horseshoe, at which USC President Harris Pastides emphatically declared the university has already raised $556 million to date.
“This will enable us to increase scholarships, endow professors, improve our facilities and enhance celebrated programs such as University 101, the Honors College, the Darla Moore School of Business, Public Health and athletics,” Pastides said.
A small crowd gathered to hear the announcement, but most staff and students were already preoccupied in the long lines for free sundaes, Frisbees and other gimmicks.
Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Michelle Dodenhoff said it will be a while before the bills come in and could not provide an estimate of how much the event cost at the time of production.
Melissa Moss, an adjunct chemical engineering professor, followed Pastides’ sentiments, saying that for her, Carolina’s Promise will allow more student-faculty interactions outside of the classroom through research and service learning.
Novella Beskid, associate director of the Office of Fellowships and Scholars, expressed a similar sentiment, breaking her rule on original speeches by echoing the words John Wesley.
“We will recruit, support and train our workforce ... ‘to do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,’” Beskid said.
Student Body Vice President Chase Mizzell, with his Carolina’s Promise T-shirt impeccably tucked into his slacks, gave his perspective on how the campaign will allow students to become the “promise of tomorrow” and lead the community and state.
Carolina’s Promise will launch a series of high-profile events next month in 27 cities across the United States, from New York to Charleston. These are areas with a high representation of successful and potential gift-bearing USC alumni, according to Steve Farwick, development director for the Office of Annual Giving. Farwick added that USC is one of only 34 schools undertaking a capital campaign of the billion-dollar scale.
Vice Provost Helen Doerpinghaus is more than confident the campaign will continue rolling toward $1 billion by 2015. According to Doerpinghaus, the university has seen a leap in private donations since 2005 and collected $122 million in the 2010–11 academic year alone.
“This is something we’ve planned to do for a long time, and, unfortunately, it is happening during a time of economic downturn,” Doerpinghaus said. “However, it’s impressive what we’ve done to get where we’ve arrived. People want to give where they know their money will be used well, and no other public research university in the U.S. has been able to increase both the number and quality of their students as we have in the past three years.”