Cornell University alumni and friends gave the university a single-year record of $219.8 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, President Hunter Rawlings announced today (Wednesday, Oct. 23).

These gifts included those made in the final six months of Cornell's record-setting $1.5 billion five-year Capital Campaign that ended Dec. 30, 1995, and those made in the first six months of 1996. Gifts for the previous fiscal year totaled $197.7 million.

"The extraordinary generosity of Cornell's alumni and friends continues to be a testament to their deep commitment to and love for the university," Rawlings said. "These gifts will help Cornell maintain its high standards of academic excellence."

Of the total $219.8 million, the largest amount, $94.7 million, came from alumni. Parents and friends gave $66.3 million, while corporations, foundations and other institutions gave $58.6 million.

"We are grateful to our alumni and friends for sustaining the excitement and commitment generated during our successful Capital Campaign and for continuing that commitment beyond the close of the Campaign," said Inge T. Reichenbach, vice president for alumni affairs and development. "In this time of restricted government funding we depend more than ever on the generosity of those committed to ensuring the quality of the Cornell experience."

Last year's results included $123.5 million in new gifts and pledges to the university's $1.786 billion endowment, including $18 million to support faculty positions, $10 million for undergraduate student aid, $16.7 million for graduate student aid, $20 million for program enhancement. Another $43.7 million in endowment gifts is unrestricted while disposition of $14.7 million remains to be designated by donors.

The endowment is the university's invested capital -- funds given with the express stipulation that their original principal amounts never be spent. The endowment is invested to provide for both long-term capital growth and to provide income to support current operations.

More than 49,067 gifts were made last year at all levels, from $5 and up. Those included, to name just a few, $6 million from the Park Foundation for graduate fellowships in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management; $5 million from Robert R. Dyson MBA '74 through the Dyson Foundation for the Sage Hall renovation project; $3 million from Dr. David Cofrin for the Structural Biology Program at the Cornell University Medical College; $3 million from the estate of Phoebe Bard Boand to support programs in Materials Science; $2 million from Peter C. '61 and Nancy Schlegel '62 Meinig for undergraduate student aid; and $2 million from Nanette Laitman for a professorship in public health at the Medical College.

"Cornell's future rests in the hands and hearts of its many alumni and friends," said Harold Tanner, chair of the Alumni Affairs and Development Committee. "We sincerely thank all of you who have given so generously over the past several years, and ask you to continue to support the university in its pursuit of excellence in the years to come."