UALR employees set a new record for a campuswide fundraising campaign for the university last year, with 47 percent participation by faculty and staff in the campaign. This year the goal is 50 percent.

“As the banners all around campus are saying, It’s Time for UALR,” said Haskell Dickinson, class of 1970 and chair of UALR’s comprehensive campaign, It’s Time for UALR.

The Campus Campaign is the arm of UALR’s campaign that invites faculty and staff to enlist in the cause of helping the institution reach the next level of excellence.

At a breakfast rally Wednesday at the Jack Stephens Center, Chancellor Joel E. Anderson joined Dickinson and Campus Campaign Chair Cindy Milazzo in congratulating offices and departments that reached 100 percent participation in 2007.

Last year, the Chancellor paid an additional $260 to make good on his promise to pay an extra $5 for every member of the UALR community who made their first donation to the campaign. As a result, an additional 52 new donors joined the effort.

At Wednesday’s breakfast, he upped the ante to $10 for each new donor for the 2008 campaign. Fifty new donors are needed to meet this year’s goal. Laura Dobbins, UALR’s director of development services, annual giving, and campus campaign, said she was confident that the UALR community would meet the 50 percent goal.

“Last year, we increased the percent of participation and grew the number of people participating from 634 the previous year to 652,” she said. “Just a few short years ago employee participation in the campus campaign was 6.5 percent, but our faculty and staff know what a strong university means to a community and a region, and they are stepping up to the plate.”

Employee campaign giving commitments for 2007 total $571,636, compared with the 2006 total of $361,045. Dobbins said 13 offices and departments reached 100 percent last year. They include:

• Construction Management
• Sequoyah Research Center
• AVC Facilities and Services
• Gifted Programs
• Education and Student Services
• Office of Recruitment
• Office of Campus Life
• Office of Communications
• Academic Success Center
• UALR Alumni Services
• Athletics Department
• Office of the Budget
• Office of the Provost

Bob Denman, executive director of the Office of Development, said the strong campus giving ethic is sending a powerful signal to others in the community that UALR’s programs and people are worthy of support.

“The people contributing to the UALR Campus Campaign know firsthand the powerful impact UALR has in the community, the state, and in the lives of individual students whose lives are profoundly changed by the education they get here,” Denman said.