UCI raises record funds

UC IRVINE ? More than 100 yellow balloons filled the Bren Events Center’s lunch room at noon on Wednesday, tied around the back of each chair. Servers carted cupcakes around the room, and a graduate from the Claire Trevor School of the Arts sang a solo.

It may not have been a kid’s birthday party, but to many of the UC Irvine leaders present, it probably felt like one.

For an hour at the Bren center, Chancellor Michael Drake, Provost Michael Gottfredson and other campus officials gathered to celebrate a singular moment in the history of UCI. Over the past year, the university set a record by garnering more than $101 million in private donations. According to campus spokesmen, the total was the largest single-year fundraising by any institution in Orange County history.

“I believe that the support really is an investment in who we are and what we are as a campus community,” said Drake, who succeeded Ralph Cicerone as UCI’s chancellor last year.

During the luncheon, held before an audience of more than 100 people, Drake was in a party mood ? and even a comic one. When the time came to reveal UCI’s final amount of donations for 2005-06, the chancellor began reading aloud his own note cards, narrating his journey across the room to make the presentation.

In a deep, sonorous voice, taking a balloon in hand, he declared: “Chancellor Drake takes the microphone and his gold balloon from the podium and says the following, while exiting the stage and walking to the banner on the right-hand side of the curtains directly opposite the stage. Events staff will help to direct.”

Drake looked around, saw no staff nearby, and the room broke into titters.

Arriving underneath a giant banner, he continued: “I would now like to make a very special announcement. Due to your thoughtful leadership and support, we have become the first organization or institution in Orange County to pass a significant philanthropic milestone.”

With that, the chancellor tugged the bottom of the banner, and the complete number unfurled: $101,421,837. The number surpassed UCI’s old record ? $87.9 million in 1999-2000 ? by a considerable margin.

Among the major gifts and grants to UCI this year were $19.6 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for research on the Dengue virus, $2 million from the Allergan Foundation for the department of ophthalmology, and $2 million from the Doris Duke Foundation to study genetic mapping.

“The achievement of this group here today enables all the other achievements at UCI,” Gottfredson said.

The last gift to UCI for the fiscal year ? and the one that put the campus over the $100-million mark ? came from Robert and Margaret Sprague, a pair of longtime benefactors. Since the luncheon occurred just after Robert Sprague’s birthday, Drake presented him with a huge candlelit cupcake. Afterward, former music student Sharon Rietkerk serenaded Sprague with “Happy Birthday.”

Recently, UCI got another high-profile gift when Bill and Sue Gross presented the campus with $10 million for stem-cell research. However, the donation didn’t make it onto the 2005-06 tally. UCI put the check on its books in early July, giving itself a head start on the current year.

“We are a quality research university, and I think people look at us and realize that,” Drake said.dpt.13-uci-cw-CPhotoInfo2E1SSLG820060713j2bfslncCredit: Caption: (LA)UCI Chancellor Michael Drake spoke at the luncheon honoring donors Wednesday.