The goals for Cornell's $4 billion capital campaign can be summed up in three words: students, faculty and facilities.

The overarching themes during the next five years, according to campaign officials, will be:

Here is how the $4 billion capital campaign goal will be allocated:

Support for students: $640 million
Includes undergraduate financial aid, international scholarship funds, graduate fellowships, financial aid for students in the professional schools and funds to enhance the living-learning experience.

Faculty and program support: $1.885 billion
Includes endowed faculty positions, endowed academic support positions, and research and program enhancement.

New facilities: $1.175 billion
Weill Cornell Medical College Biomedical Research Building, Life Sciences Technology Building, West Campus Residential Initiative, Physical Sciences Building, William H. Gates Hall for Computing and Information Science, Helen Newman Hall, Milstein Hall for Architecture, Art and Planning, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art expansion and renovation, plaza outside Bailey Hall and Lynah Rink expansion.

Unrestricted support: $300 million
Includes Cornell Annual Fund and program support.

With other top universities competing for the best and brightest students, Cornell knows it must increase its competitiveness in the area of financial aid. President David Skorton says that making higher education attainable to all qualified students is indeed a top priority for the campaign. Increasing racial and socioeconomic diversity on campus, among undergraduate and graduate students alike, is also a key goal for Cornell's future, according to Skorton.

"We don't want the doors to be closed by financial and other types of barriers," Skorton said.

A major challenge facing the university in the coming years is the staggering number of faculty retirements expected -- nearly a third of the current number -- due in large part to the aging of the "baby boomer" population.

To that end, replacing faculty with the next generation of researchers and teachers is another need that is driving the capital campaign. And the competition for faculty among top schools is going to be, in a word, intense.

"We have to be very strategic in our efforts to attract, and retain, top professors," said Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Charlie Phlegar.

Finally, ensuring that Cornell is making necessary and far-reaching investments in its physical structures to support students and faculty in both teaching and research is a crucial facet of the campaign efforts.

From the ongoing West Campus Residential Initiative, to the Life Sciences Technology Building sprouting up on central campus, to recently announced plans for the new architecture building, Milstein Hall, the needs are growing and will span a number of years.

Phlegar also points out that older buildings, such as those on the Arts Quad, and North Campus's Helen Newman Hall, need to be updated and renovated in coming years.