Led by grants promoting ocean research and drawing on strong support from alumni, private gifts to UC Santa Cruz reached $35.3 million during 2004-05.
"Across the range of disciplines, from social sciences, humanities, and the physical and biological sciences to arts and engineering, our donors are making a positive difference at UC Santa Cruz," said Chancellor Denice D. Denton. "We depend on their generosity and support, and are very grateful for it."
The total amount raised-a record for the campus-marked an increase of nearly 10 percent from the 2003-04 year.
Drawing the largest share of private support was a long-term collaborative research project studying and monitoring coastal ecosystems. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation together contributed more than $7 million to UC Santa Cruz for its role in the Partnership for Interdiscplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans.
Ocean research was the goal of another gift by the Moore Foundation, $4.1 million to establish a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator in Marine Science. The investigator, professor of ocean sciences Jonathan Zehr, has done groundbreaking research on microorganisms that "fertilize" the oceans by converting nitrogen gas into a form that other organisms can use (a process called nitrogen fixation). The Moore Foundation also gave $650,647 for a multidisciplinary project to determine the number and distribution of predators in the open ocean.
The largest single contribution was the $6.5 million in-kind gift from Texas Instruments of a large industrial facility and the 18.5-acre site surrounding it. The building, in Santa Cruz near the array of campus research facilities at Long Marine Laboratory, is well suited for classrooms, laboratories, and offices.
Foundation trustee Kit Mura-smith, who came to the campus as a re-entry student, contributed the largest single amount ever from a UC Santa Cruz graduate. Her $1.4 million charitable trust will be split between scholarships for re-entry students and the McHenry Library, the campus's main library.
Alumni support was impressive throughout the campus, with more than $1.7 million in reunion giving. Alumni also contributed $709,858 of the more than $2.7 million given to the Annual Fund. The Telephone Outreach Program, which contacts alumni as well as students' parents, raised nearly $1.2 million, a record for the second year in a row.
UC Santa Cruz Foundation trustees contributed more than $2.5 million to the campus.
McHenry Library drew support from many other sources, including $500,000 from the late Miller and Bunny Outcalt for the library's photography archives, and $150,000 from Professor Emerita Melanie J. Mayer to support local history research in Special Collections.
The Jack Baskin School of Engineering's Storage Systems Research Center received $1 million from Kumar Malavalli, cofounder of Brocade Communications and cofounder and CEO of InMage Systems, to establish the Kumar Malavalli Endowed Chair in Storage Systems Research.
Two of the campus's community collaborations for promoting educational achievement, economic equity, and environmental justice received nearly $1 million from the W. H. Kellogg Foundation. The Bridging Multiple Worlds Alliance and the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community will share the $978,125 grant.
The New Teacher Center's programs around the nation for new teachers and administrators drew grants of $306,296 from the Stupski Foundation and $300,000 from the Goldman Sachs Foundation.
The largest single gift from an estate came from Federico and Rena Perlino, who ran a chicken-processing plant in Santa Cruz for many years and were known for their modest lifestyle, hard work, and frugality. Their gift of nearly $420,000 will support graduate students in psychology who are working with deaf or hearing-impaired individuals.
