We were told $500 million was too high a goal for a young university with a young alumni base like ours. We went for it anyway, because that’s what we’ve always done.
We were told several years ago that we shouldn’t have a law school. Today, the Scalia Law School is ranked 18th in the world.
We were told we shouldn’t offer engineering and now the Volgenau School is the fastest-growing engineering school in Virginia and the largest in computing disciplines.
We were told to focus on teaching. That we did. But along the way we earned two Nobel Prizes — Virginia’s first — and reached the top tier among American research universities.
We were expected to be a good regional school. We showed that we could serve our region while also being nationally and internationally ranked.
We were even told our basketball team would never rival the big leagues, but the Patriots reached the Final Four.
We have helped turn the sleepy outskirts of the nation’s capital into a world-class, vibrant region capable of attracting the most iconic companies in the world (welcome, Amazon, again, by the way!). Let others claim all the credit they want. No one has done more to make this region what it is than our university and our alumni.
So we went out and asked our alumni and friends, corporations and foundations, to invest in our fast-growing university, to help us provide more opportunities to more talented students, to support the breakthrough research of our faculty, to expand our campuses and continue to drive innovation in our thriving region. And they responded. We achieved our goal, and then some.
As we wrap up the Faster Farther campaign, we have already reached $670 million. And we will keep counting until December 31st.
We will then do what we’ve always done. Keep dreaming big. Double down on our relentless mission of access to excellence. Be the best research university we can be while keeping our doors open to students of all backgrounds who want an opportunity to do great things.
To all our donors and campaign volunteers, to our development staff, our faculty and deans, we say 670 million thanks. You’ve made history. Now, forward.