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Campaign for Alter Hall

Why Do We Seek Support?

As the immediate past president of the Alumni Association and current chair of the Development Committee, I have had the unique opportunity to meet with many alumni and friends of the school, a number of whom tell me about their desire to strengthen the School and the tremendous satisfaction they get from supporting an institution that played an important role in their lives. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the more than 3,800 donors who generously gave to the Fox School last year. Your support will have a significant and lasting impact on our mission and the thousands of students who enter our halls.

At the same time, I sometimes hear from people say that they don’t understand why a large, successful university, like Temple, needs to raise money from its alumni and friends. I understand why some might feel this way. In fact, as a student and newly minted alumni volunteer, the importance of philanthropy to Temple wasn’t always
clear to me. But it is now, and would like to take this opportunity to share with you some thoughts on why we actively seek your philanthropic support.

Although Temple and The Fox School have a number of assets and strengths that will serve us well into the future, we are continually challenged by the size of our endowment, which, along with student tuition and state aid, is a critical source of income that funds our academic mission. Other state aided universities in Pennsylvania, including Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh, have endowments that, for various historical reasons, are significantly larger than Temple’s.

A smaller endowment means that we have less to offer in the form of scholarships for students, support for faculty and their research, and enhancements to our physical campus—a situation that puts the University and the Fox School at a strategic disadvantage to peer and aspirant institutions. The size of our endowment is all the more pressing given the overall decline in financial support provided by the state and our efforts to hold down tuition costs.

Here’s an example of how this predicament plays out in the area of scholarships. Helping students pay the cost of their education is one of Temple’s highest priorities. Yet, due in large part to the size of our endowment, we are unable to provide financial aid to all Temple students who need it, or as much as we would like to students who do receive aid. As a result, Temple graduates have one of the highest student loan burdens compared to graduates of other public universities in the state.

In order to advance Temple’s core mission of teaching, research and service, we must grow our endowment and secure shorter-term philanthropic support for our priorities. This is where fundraising comes in. Indeed, we rely on alumni and friends of Temple and The Fox School to help fill the gap between what our current circumstances
allow us to do and what we need to do to move Temple forward.

You will be hearing more from me and others at the School on this important issue in the months to come. In the meantime, I look forward to working in my capacity as chair of the Alumni Association’s Development Committee to position the Fox School for continued success as one of the nation’s most dynamic public, urban school of business.

Bret Perkins, BBA ’91

Chair, Development Committee
The Fox School of Business Alumni Association