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SALT LAKE CITY — An almost decade-long fundraising campaign has netted Utah State University more than $500 million for scholarships, new buildings and endowments, a school official said Friday.
In 2003, the university announced a fundraising goal of $200 million, but Utah State President Stan Albrecht upped the figure to $400 million after better-than-expected donations rolled in, despite the down economy.
"For a public university, this kind of money is a lot, especially in a time of uncertainty," spokesman Eric Warren said Friday.
During a celebration Friday night in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom, USU President Stan Albrecht announced that the university had raised nearly $513 million, surpassing its $400 million goal.
More than 50,000 people donated money, which has gone toward construction of 24 new buildings, both on the main campus in Logan and at smaller, branch campuses across the state, 190 new scholarships and more than 230 new endowments for teaching and administrative positions.
Several of the new buildings were built in rural parts of Utah to improve distance education programs - an effort that has been integral to the university's growth in recent years as it works to meet its land-grant university mission.
Utah State has some 16,000 students enrolled at the Logan campus, with nearly that many - 12,000 - at other campuses around the state.
The land-grant mission is something Utah State takes very seriously, to serve the population of the entire state of Utah, especially rural areas, according to Vice Provost Robert Wagner.
"The buildings that were built as part of this campaign around the state have increased the capacity of the university to deliver more programs and degrees," he said.
In recent years, the university has expanded its Tooele regional campus, where the university also partnered with the community's applied technology college on a joint building that was funded in part with money from the state Legislature.
Under the campaign, a new building in Vernal in the Uintah Basin has been built, Wagner said, and a new donation will allow for construction of a building in Moab.
