Campaign for CMU takes significant strides

The New Vision of Excellence Campaign for Central Michigan University, which kicked off September 13, 2003, is making exciting progress toward the announced goal of $50 million.

The campaign already has topped the $38 million mark, which includes nearly $9 million raised since CMU launched the campaign's public phase last fall.

Articles in this inaugural issue of Viewpoint, the official New Vision of Excellence Campaign newsletter, highlight some of these recent gifts to support the New Vision of Excellence Campaign for Central Michigan University.

We are strongly encouraged by the donor-generated momentum that the campaign has built these past six months, said Michael Leto, vice president of development and alumni relations. Such strong response from alumni and friends demonstrates CMU's enormous potential. The many generous donations given to date are inspiring others to help CMU take that next step as a nationally prominent university.

Campaign priorities

The New Vision of Excellence Campaign priorities include providing scholarships that help attract and retain talented and deserving students; encouraging research, scholarship, creativity, and community engagement among students and faculty; and enhancing CMU's learning environment by upgrading facilities and acquiring technologically advanced equipment.

This campaign parallels growth of innovative new public and private partnerships. These partnerships advance knowledge in niche areas while providing context, meaning, and instructional excellence in more than 200 academic programs at the bachelor's, master's, specialist's, and doctoral levels.

The university is centered on a number of key priorities that will, ultimately, lead us to educate and graduate students who make meaningful personal and professional contributions to society, CMU President Michael Rao said at the campaign kickoff, encouraging alumni and friends to support the New Vision of Excellence.

You can make a difference in the life of the university, its stature, the lives of our students, and ultimately, the well-being of the world that will be served by students who graduate from this exceptional university, Rao added. The campaign is truly a time for the CMU family to come together in support of a great university and its bright, talented students.

A solid start

With anticipation building at the September 13 campaign kickoff dinner, New Vision of Excellence Campaign Chair Roger Kesseler, '58, '89, announced to dinner guests that donors already had contributed $29,343,048 toward the $50 million goal during the quiet phase of the campaign. The announcement was followed by a burst of streamers and the CMU Fight Song performed by the Chippewa Marching Band, which appeared from behind the Plachta Auditorium curtain. The band performed as it marched through the table aisles and out the main doors of the auditorium.

Kesseler credited CMU for much of his professional and personal success.

I agreed to chair this campaign because it is in my heart to ensure that CMU is able to continue providing increasingly outstanding educational, professional, and personal experiences for its students for many years to come, he said.

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Building dedication

You are invited to the CMU Health Professions Building Grand Opening Celebration and Dedication scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday, March 26. For information about the Health Professions Building and its grand opening, visit www.chp.cmich.edu.

The $50 million, 175,000-square-foot Health Professions Building brings together CMU's health professions and neuroscience programs and its many associated research initiatives and outreach services into one technologically advanced environment.

Included in the $10 million raised in private gifts and grants, university alumni and friends helped CMU meet the conditions of a $600,000 challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation.

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Carlin endowment memorializes former CMU guidance counselor

An estate gift totaling nearly $420,000 will extend the legacy of a much-loved guidance counselor at Central Michigan University and provide support for deserving students with financial need.

The Dr. Leslie O. Carlin Scholarship Endowment will provide funds for incoming freshmen and community college transfer students who, because of family and financial responsibilities, were prevented from participating in extracurricular activities that might otherwise have qualified them for financial aid. The amount of the annual scholarship will increase as the endowment grows.

Carlin was a guidance counselor at CMU for 33 years, retiring in 1981. He and his wife, Margo, a housemother, lived in the university's residence halls for 25 years. In recognition of their lifelong dedication to CMU students, the Carlin Alumni House on the CMU campus was dedicated to them in 1993.

The relationships that the Carlins built with students have been an important part of many of our alumni's educational experiences, said CMU President Michael Rao. The generosity of Dr. Carlin is greatly appreciated because it fulfills an important goal of the university's New Vision of Excellence Campaign of attracting new scholarship dollars for students, which is our top priority.

Leslie worked in the Counseling Center from 1948 to 1981. In those early years, he taught a mandatory orientation class for all students. In 1948, student enrollment was about 2,500.

The class was designed to give students academic and social counseling so that they could feel comfortable in handling their affairs, Les said in a 1993 interview.

Margo Carlin served as a housemother similar to today's residence hall directors from 1948 to 1967. In 1954 she helped open Robinson Hall, which was one of the first residence halls in the country to have a bathroom in each suite.

In retirement, Les Carlin continued to involve himself in teaching, volunteer work, and counseling at CMU. He and Margo were travelers, visiting all 50 states and more than 150 countries. Margo passed away in 1991 and Les in 2002.

Endowed gifts to the university are invested, with a portion of the earnings expended each year to support scholarships and other programs, said Michael Leto, vice president for development and alumni relations.

The Carlins were much loved, and their appreciation and support for CMU are demonstrated by their estate gift, Leto said. The endowment will perpetuate their legacy by providing much-needed scholarship support for deserving students with financial need.

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Kulhavi professorship catalyzes neuroscience program, BRAIN center

Central Michigan University trustee and alumnus John G. Kulhavi has funded an endowed professorship with a gift to CMU.

The John G. Kulhavi Professorship in Neuroscience will help strengthen CMU's neuroscience program and the Brain Research and Integrative Neuroscience Center, said E. Gary Shapiro, dean of the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

We are extremely grateful to John Kulhavi for his gift to our program, Shapiro said. This is further proof that we have a high-caliber neuroscience program that's being recognized not only internally, but externally, by alumni and friends.

The new professorship will provide funding to the psychology department to support neuroscience research and student learning. The gift supports CMU's New Vision of Excellence Campaign to raise $50 million.

Gary Dunbar, chairman of the psychology department, said Kulhavi's interest in the neuroscience program has been apparent throughout their interactions.

I think he really has a keen interest in the types of research and educational programs we want to offer, said Dunbar. It's really clear to me that he has an abiding passion for CMU.

After hearing of the research of Dunbar and his colleagues, particularly concerning cures for neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington's, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's, Kulhavi said he felt his gift could impact a lot of people.

I was very impressed with the work that Dr. Dunbar and his staff were doing, Kulhavi said. With additional funding, hopefully the department can have even greater breakthroughs. There are a large number of people that the research could benefit.

CMU President Michael Rao said Kulhavi's gift is just one example of his commitment and support of the university.

John Kulhavi, along with his fellow trustees, has shown the true essence of leadership through his long-standing involvement with the university and with his tremendous support throughout the capital campaign, Rao said. Faculty endowed positions are excellent tools to not only attract and retain the very best faculty members but also to remain competitive with our peer institutions.

The endowed professorship comes at a crucial moment for the neuroscience program, just as it moves into CMU's new Health Professions Building.

What an endowed professorship will do is allow a leader in our neuroscience program to really focus on what's critically important for the program itself, said Dunbar.

Kulhavi, a 1965 CMU graduate, was appointed to the CMU Board of Trustees by Gov. John Engler in 2002. He is senior vice president for Merrill Lynch in Farmington Hills. He lives in White Lake.

In September 2003, CMU dedicated the newly constructed John G. Kulhavi Residence Hall, named in recognition of his ongoing support of the university.

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