April 21, 2003

The members of CSU's faculty and staff 'family' have scored an amazing campaign victory on two fronts:

* Raising more than $1.8 million, nearly doubling their goal;
* First Capital Campaign Division to reach and exceed its goal.

Mario Mion, a long-time political science professor who chaired the on campus faculty/staff campaign, said he was tremendously proud of his colleague's campaign participation.

'It was with great anxiety that we set the faculty/staff goal at $1million, but our colleagues have exceeded our expectations with their generous philanthropic support,' said Mion, who worked on the campaign with co-chairs Linda Reynolds in student services, and Tom Hanley, a chair of the Department of Chemistry and Geology.

Almost 90 percent of current faculty/staff contributed to the campaign.

'That kind of participation is almost unheard of, and sends a very clear message to the community that those closest to the need have endorsed the objectives of this campaign,' said CSU President Frank Brown.

Nearly 100 volunteers solicited their colleagues face-to-face and one-on-one over a 12-month period, taking the message to nearly 600 members of the faculty and staff on campus and 140 retirees off campus.

Hugh Rodgers, CSU's professor emeritus of history, chaired the retired faculty and staff campaign with his vice chairs, Mae Allen, Frances Duncan, Charles Ragsdale, and Lois Thompson.

'When we were invited to join the campaign as CSU's 'extended family' we were delighted and honored to be still considered part of the university's family,' said Thompson, who was the first director of the college's Human Resources Department when it was founded in 1958.

'The retired members of the faculty and staff helped take their campaign over the goal and have challenged themselves to raise the balance of the funds needed to reach the $2 million mark,' Rodgers said.

To date, raised funds for CSU's 'An Investment In People' continues to climb steadily with an average of $3.6 million each month for the past 16 months, bringing the total to near $60 million.

Jimmy Yancey, the Synovus CEO chairing the campaign said: 'This is, in fact, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to further develop Columbus State University into a truly great institution of higher learning, and to make Columbus and this region a great place to live. And by investing in people, we will continue to be gratified and amazed at what we, together, can accomplish.'

The campaign, now in its public phase, is now focused on reaching out into the community to seek philanthropic investments from a broad-based CSU constituency. An enthusiastic cadre of campaign volunteers are seeking investments from individuals, businesses,corporations and foundations that want to be a part of the ongoing renaissance of the Columbus community, educationally, economically, and culturally, all at the same time, Yancey said.

###

Contact: Tom Maskornick, 569-342; maskornick_tom@ColumbusState.edu