A $1.5 billion dollar campaign named “Because of UConn” was announced by University of Connecticut President Radenka Maric last Wednesday at a kickoff event at the Avery Point campus, according to UConn Today.
Before the kickoff event, the largest fundraising campaign in the college’s history was almost halfway to the goal, exceeding one-billion dollars because of large donations in the “quiet phase of the campaign”, according to the UConn Foundation website.
Prior to “Because of UConn,” the previous record holder for largest campaign effort belonged to the “Our University. Our Moment. The Campaign for UConn” fundraiser. The campaign launched in 2009 asked for $600 million dollars to support goals similar to this most recent fundraiser, like financial aid and faculty support.
Only $30 million more is needed in addition to the $720 million raised before the campaign went public to reach the midway milestone, according to an email from Grace Merritt, an integrated communications specialist at UConn Foundation. The current sum doesn’t include any donations made during the kickoff event itself, according to the email Merritt sent to The Daily Campus.
“Because of UConn” invests in the core mission of the university by focusing on four areas, or pillars, that need funding, as stated in the press release. The first pillar focuses on putting students first through investments toward financial aid, career readiness and time-to-degree improvements, according to UConn Today. After that, the pillars focus on academic and innovation excellence and the health and wellness of people and the planet.
“Husky Pride” is the last of the four funding areas, which focuses on “investing in athletic excellence and supporting a thriving UConn nation,” according to UConn Today. An update this Wednesday on the UConn Foundation website provides information on a new athlete success center that demonstrates how parts of this campaign will be implemented.
“On April 23, UConn announced a transformative $15 million commitment from longtime supporters Denis and Britta Nayden that will establish The Nayden Center for Academic Excellence within the Bailey Student-Athlete Success Center,” according to the update.
According to the press release, the Nayden’s donated over $25 million dollars before the campaign was announced, which left around $10 million dollars of their funds for UConn’s other goals.
Most of the largest donations made during this “quiet” campaign phase came from alumni, with approximately $103 million being donated across the five largest alumni donors before the campaign was public, according to the campaign website. In the current breakdown of campaign gifts, Elizabeth DeLuca has the most substantial contribution of $52 million.
Elizabeth DeLuca is a UConn nursing graduate of 1969 who isn’t a newcomer to the UConn Foundation. According to the Hartford Courant, DeLuca previously provided a different record-breaking $40 million dollar gift to UConn to aid the School of Nursing amidst a state nursing shortage. DeLuca is the former head nurse at Bridgeport Hospital and widow to the co-founder of Subway chain restaurants, according to the American Society of Registered Nurses.
“Because of UConn” comes after an overarching tension between the public university and its reliance on both state and federal funding, according to a Connecticut Insider article. This pressure was seen in Maric’s 2024 presentation to the Appropriations Committee, which requested an additional $47.3 million for the university and $16.9 million for UConn Health beyond what Governor Ned Lamont proposed for the current 2025 fiscal year. Despite the presentation, earlier this year, the Hartford Courant quoted Maric saying that the governor’s recent budget puts UConn at a $160 million dollar deficit.
Lamont’s argument for not providing more funding to UConn amidst these deficit concerns is that state funding to UConn is higher than ever, according to CT Insider. However, that same outlet analyzed over 50 years of state budget analysis reports and concluded that inflation has outpaced the stability in state funding with rising school expenses, according to a CT Insider review. The Insider article covering “Because of UConn” says the campaign could solve some of these underlying funding issues.
The funding campaign is comprehensive, which means the four pillars of improvement extend to “all schools, colleges, campuses, and UConn Health,” according to UConn Today.