A Future You Can See

by Susan Allen, College Editor

As the comprehensive campaign to raise $90 million by 2016 enters its pivotal new phase, early successes are already evident on campus. Now, the campaign initiative itself is acquiring some curb appeal.

Thoughtfully designed lamppost banners along the mall and a mural on the side of the Bush Arts Center make it evident to the world – or that part of the world that passes by on Third Street ­– that St. Norbert has its fiscally responsible eye on a future with excellence as its hallmark.

Outcomes from Campaign St. Norbert: Full Ahead may not be labeled as such but some are already evident in bricks-and-mortar projects completed or underway: Michels Commons, the Welcome Center and the Cassandra Voss Center, for instance, and not least the 150,000-square-foot Gehl-Mulva Science Center (GMS) now taking shape in the northeast corner of campus.

With financial support for GMS now well on track, the emphasis of the campaign pivots from funding the new science center to completing fundraising for the other priorities identified when the campaign launched in 2009. 

“Campaign St. Norbert: Full Ahead is about removing hurdles from the paths in front of today’s SNC community,” says Phil Oswald (College Advancement), who has steered the initiative to its current $75 million mark. “Equipping our campus with the Gehl-Mulva Science Center removes one hurdle and endowing scholarships removes the hurdle of affordability for our students and their families. Both are important; funding GMS nears completion but now we need to focus on endowing financial aid for needy and meritorious students. 

“Scholarships are not just something in the abstract. You can see it in every student who walks campus, who studies at Mulva Library, who steps up to give back to their community. Real. Curious. Alive. Studious. Athletic. Inquisitive. SNC students, and the college that inspires them, need the entire SNC community, most especially our alumni and friends, to build a clear path for their future … and ours.” 

This fall the campaign increases its visibility on campus in another dimension, too: Nov. 5 was the launch date of All Aboard, the faculty/staff fundraising effort within the campaign. A student campaign follows. Oswald says the philanthropic support of any institution’s own constituents (its employees, its alumni and even the modest contributions of its current students and newest grads) is critically important – not least because such support evidences good faith and commitment on the part of those who know the institution most intimately. 


Nov. 19, 2013