With a formal announcement planned in New York City on Oct. 26, Cornell will officially kick off the public phase of its five-year, multibillion-dollar capital campaign. Charged with leading the aggressive campaign is Charlie Phlegar, who became Cornell's vice president for alumni affairs and development in July. Phlegar has 25 years of fund-raising experience, having worked on 63 previous campaigns in some form. This campaign will be his most ambitious to date. Most recently, Phlegar provided leadership for a $3 billion campaign for Johns Hopkins University, where he served as interim vice president for development and alumni relations. He sat down with the Cornell Chronicle editors earlier this month to explain the goals of the campaign.

Though you will be announcing the campaign formally on Oct. 26 in New York City, could you talk now about the dollar target?

Robert Barker/University Photography

Vice President Charlie Phlegar in his Day Hall office.

Based on our feasibility, we're looking at something around a $4 billion number. It's somewhere in that range, with the total for the Ithaca campus at $3 billion. And that's a number that will challenge us and require our best efforts..

Could you describe the goals of the campaign?

There are three overarching priorities for this campaign. One of those is a major focus on students, both undergraduate and graduate students, primarily around endowed support for scholarships and fellowships. We also want to raise funds that will support students in other important ways, to open up new opportunities for undergraduate research, for example, and to further invest in West Campus and other initiatives that extend learning beyond the classroom and help students become more globally focused.

Around faculty, we're facing a huge challenge in that we'll have retirements of a large group of our faculty over the next 10-year period. If it were just Cornell having that problem, it wouldn't be an issue. But the fact is, all of the great universities are going to have the same problem at the same time. So the competition for hiring new faculty is going be intense. We have to compete against the best institutions. Many of those institutions have more money and more endowment than we have. We have to be very strategic in our efforts to attract, and retain, top professors.

And then the third component is facilities. We have some very important facility needs, some of which are already under way, and others that are on the drawing board. The Life Sciences Technology Building is pretty well known. The West Campus Initiative is very important, and there's the Architecture, Art and Planning facility that's been publicized, as well as the discussion about a physical sciences building of some significance. On the Arts Quad, we need to renovate some of those older buildings to give our humanities faculty and students the kind of modern, more technology-friendly environment they need to teach and learn. There are pressing needs around student recreation such as Helen Newman, which needs to be refurbished and modernized. Facilities like Helen Newman and those on North and West Campus are really crucial since they help students strike the right balance they need to live and learn at Cornell.

To what degree is this campaign going to deal with issues of financial aid and providing access for students from diverse backgrounds?

The final details and numbers are just about worked out, but our financial aid funding needs will certainly be a very large percentage of the overall goal. Many of the Ivy League schools have sizeable endowments, and they are tapping those more fully to provide even more substantial financial aid packages. Cornell's endowment is more modest, and that puts us at a bit of a competitive disadvantage, but we still have to be in the game and we still have to allow students to afford the Cornell experience, so building private support for scholarships and graduate fellowships is key. State institutions that were never in that game are very, very aggressive now in giving at least the top academic students an opportunity to participate.

Could you talk more about how the campaign will work to attract more faculty to Cornell?

We need new levels of funding for hundreds of endowed chairs. This will make it possible for us to offer the most competitive salary packages. When you're recruiting or trying to retain outstanding faculty, most of those faculty members are being offered endowed chairs, so we must have the ability to do that. And we have to package things together so that an endowed chair may be coupled with support for graduate students, space in a brand new lab and on top of that, thousands of dollars for their research. All of these factors combined are critical to successful faculty recruiting and retention.

But more than that, we have to focus on big ideas, what I call transformational ideas, where you're not just making a gift for a building or for an endowed faculty position, but you're having an even greater impact on society.

Can you identify these specific 'transformational ideas' for Cornell?

Instead of just discussing an endowed faculty position in some area, you begin talking about transformational ideas. That we're going to be partnering to advance this much bigger idea that has the potential to change the world in some way, and wouldn't you like to be a part of that? So, it's not just a gift for a $3 million endowed chair. The donor is doing something much more significant. They're helping to solve world hunger or find a cure for AIDS through their support of that professorship. Or they're helping people in a developing country have a better life.

That's really what makes us different. The alumni love Cornell, and they give generously, but there's no other institution that I'm aware of with the pieces that Cornell has in place right now. We have such a distinctive range of schools and programs, from a medical college to a vet college. Most universities don't have that kind of scope and depth. We also have a long-standing commitment to interdisciplinary work and collaborative efforts that are really driving the discoveries of the future. And Cornell has its special land-grant mission that motivates our faculty and our students to take new knowledge and apply it to help people and the world. When you bring all these elements together, it's very powerful and it uniquely positions us to do things that no other institution can do, literally.

When I say transformational ideas, I'm talking about all of our donors, not just those who make the very big gifts. We want donors at all levels, big and small, to know that their gift is helping to bring one of these transformational ideas to life, and maybe that will encourage them to give just a bit more than usual. Young alumni and others who make that modest contribution every year to our annual fund are really important, and we have an aggressive goal to double the number of annual fund gifts during this campaign. "It takes a village" really applies to campaigns. We need everyone's support to make this happen.

This public launch follows two years of what's called a quiet phase of the campaign, and now another five years is planned. How do you keep the campaign uppermost in the minds of alumni?

This campaign is unique in its challenges because of the recent presidential transition and the transition of the vice president role. But we're going to have a time of motivation and stimulation and excitement because David [Skorton] is the new president. People will want to hear what he has to say. He's inspirational. He's a really upbeat, optimistic person, and I think people will enjoy that.

We plan to phase the campaign in over five years and roll out activities during that time that will help us build momentum and keep people energized and interested. We'll be hosting regional events around the country at different stages of the campaign. These events will take the president back on the road and generate excitement again about where we are in the campaign and how we're starting to use the money that's been raised.

Are there other specific challenges?

We need a couple of very large and significant gifts. We need people to make some transformational gifts -- $50 million to $100 million-type gifts. The person who's giving $50, we need them to give $75. The person that's giving $200, we need them to think about $250. We need our alumni base to stretch a little bit more in this effort.

Are there any 'large gifts' on the horizon?

There are a number of very large gift discussions currently under way. And there are numerous gifts in the $1 million to $25 million range that have been secured. We've raised roughly $1 billion during the quiet phase.

Will you be announcing the goals for the Weill Cornell part of the campaign along with the main campaign announcement in New York City?

When we announce the campaign goal on Oct. 26 we will be sharing one number that includes funds for both the Ithaca and Weill campuses. Some of the funds raised, probably about one-fourth of the total goal, will be for the medical college's specific needs. We'll also be raising funds to be used jointly by Ithaca and Weill -- around $300 million -- that will support collaborations between the two campuses, for cancer-related research and other focus areas in the life sciences and medicine.

Strengthening this collaboration is very much needed as we look for future donations from foundations and federal agencies. With our expertise in the basic sciences and Weill's clinical expertise, it's very important that we merge the two in new ways to make big medical discoveries possible.

As Cornell's new vice president for alumni affairs and development, how would you describe your style of leadership, and what experience do you bring to help the campaign be a success?

My style is really to tap into the expertise of a talented staff that we certainly have at Cornell, but also a whole host of other people. This talent, combined with the solid plan that has been developed over the last two years and that is now in place, puts us in a position of strength as we launch the campaign. The AAD staff has done an incredible job these last two years, considering the transition and the big challenges that came with it. But they are ready, the alumni leadership is excited, and the president is fully committed to making the campaign a tremendous success.