Harvard launches Campaign for Arts and Sciences

During the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences' event, a panel of young alumni discussed innovation and entrepreneurship. Left to right: Christopher Thorpe, AB '97, SM '06, Ph.D. '08; Pratheev Sreetharan, AB '06, SM '11, Ph.D. '12; Margo Seltzer '83, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science; Alana Pradhan '13; and Tuan Ho '09.

Michael D. Smith formally launched the $2.5 billion Harvard Campaign for Arts and Sciences on Saturday morning at a standing-room-only alumni event at Sanders Theatre. The gathering was followed by a series of symposia highlighting the faculty’s commitment to teaching, groundbreaking scholarship, and the residential learning model.

In his remarks, Smith, the Dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), emphasized the transformative power of the University’s commitment to leadership in learning.

“At Harvard, we like to say that learning happens everywhere, not just in the classroom,” said Smith, the John H. Finley Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “Intellectual stimulation abounds on our campus, pours out our gates to make a difference in the community, nation, and world around us. We keep pace with the world through the use of greater technology in our teaching and research. But we must continue to grasp for the magic that happens when the most promising students and the most talented faculty come together.

“This is what makes Harvard unique, what fuels its broad-based excellence, what generates the incredible creativity, innovation, and ideas overflowing every seat and stage at Harvard,” Smith continued. “This is at the heart of our Campaign for Arts and Sciences.”

During the program, Carl J. Martignetti ’81, M.B.A. ’85, co-chair of the FAS Campaign Steering Committee, announced that the campaign has already raised $1 billion from 93,000 individual gifts during its quiet phase. Campaign co-chairs Glenn H. Hutchins ’77, J.D.-M.B.A. ’83, Sandy Edgerley ’84, M.B.A. ’89, and Paul Edgerley, M.B.A. ’83 also spoke at the event.

Part of the $6.5 billion Harvard Campaign, the Campaign for Arts and Sciences celebrates Harvard — particularly Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) — as a place of discovery for people leading positive change in the world. Its priorities, organized around six themes, strengthen core commitments and make important investments for the future:

• Leading in Learning, to support Harvard faculty as they drive innovation and explore a new world of teaching and learning, with a goal of $150 million.
• Financial Aid, to ensure every extraordinary student accepted can attend, with a goal of $600 million.
• House Renewal and the Student Experience, to develop Harvard’s Houses, recognizing that they are among the most important learning places on campus, with a goal of $500 million.
• Faculty and the Scholarly Enterprise, to connect the brightest minds across the broadest landscape of academic disciplines, encouraging fearless exploration and creative thinking, with a goal of $600 million.
• The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, to support its reimagining of engineering education and research for the 21st century, with a goal of $450 million.
• The Dean’s Leadership Fund, to provide the agility needed in a fast-moving world to grasp emerging opportunities, and meet unexpected challenges, with a goal of $250 million.

Each of the six campaign priorities, Smith said, concentrates on a simple concept: “making sure Harvard continues as a place of discovery for people leading positive change in the world. Scientists and scholars, poets and entrepreneurs: that’s our heritage, and our future.”

Read the entire article in the Harvard Gazette