FHSU University Relations and Marketing
As part of its homecoming week activities, Fort Hays State University and the FHSU Foundation announced last Wednesday a $100 million, five-year capital campaign called “Journey,” the largest in the university’s history.
“The Journey Campaign is the largest, most aggressive campaign in school history,” said Jason Williby, president and CEO of the FHSU Foundation, announcing the campaign at a news conference this morning in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center in the university’s Sheridan Hall.
The campaign has four pillars, he said:
• $45 million for scholarships.
• $39 million for programs in the academic colleges, the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, the FHSU Alumni Association and Forsyth Library.
• $8 million for athletics.
• $8 million for student life.
“Our university is an amazing institution, filled with world class faculty and staff, students with tremendous potential, on a beautiful campus with many first-class facilities,” Williby told about 150 people gathered for the kickoff.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t improve, but to improve we need your support,” he continued. “Private dollars have never been more important to higher education than they are today. Help us continue to make Fort Hays State exceptional.”
The campaign’s goal of $100 million was announced by campaign co-chair Steve Shields, president & CEO of Action Pact Development LLC, Manhattan, Kan., Atlanta, Ga., & Milwaukee Wis., which specializes in organizational transformation, design, development and strategic planning in the senior living sector.
Fort Hays State, he said, has always had a tradition of relationships between people of the campus, between the campus and city, between faculty and staff, but it is not locked into traditions that stop growth and relevance.
“We’re now the third largest university in Kansas,” he said. “You want to know why that is? Based on that value of believing in people and connectedness to people and diversifying how we reach people and teach and educate and produce young people to lead the world.”
“We have diversified. We’re not afraid of new. We’re not afraid of failure. We’re not afraid of innovation. We’re not afraid of creating. We’re a nimble university, and we’re the only one I know of that can completely be described like that.
“We need to view ourselves like that, and we need to adopt that for ourselves, and by 2050 I have no doubt this will be the largest university in Kansas but most importantly it will be the most effective university in Kansas.”
That is why, he said, that he has “absolute confidence that this Journey Campaign” will meet its $100 million goal.
“We are living in unprecedented times,” said University President Mirta M. Martin, fresh off the plane from a trip to China. “With unprecedented times come unprecedented, valiant efforts to protect our future. That is why we are here today, to safeguard our values, to safeguard our future, to safeguard our university.”
We are here, she said, so that future leaders produced by Fort Hays State, like past generations, are able to live the American Dream.
Two members of that next generation also spoke: Emily Brandt, Beloit senior and president of the Student Government Association, and Vivian Agnew, Haysville senior and SGA vice president.
“Donors give students the ability to be student leaders, achieve their dreams, and do the impossible without having to worry about the costs associated with living on our own for the first time,” said Brandt.
She continued, “Donors are the reasons students succeed. They are the reason that you are sitting in front of us today and the reason that students on our campus are able to do more, be more and achieve more.”
“We thank donors for their unwavering support and kindness, for their gifts of time and encouragement,” said Agnew. “We thank them for making FHSU the destination of choice and a place that all Tigers can call home.”
Two other co-chairs, Jessica and Tyler Thompson, Kansas City, were unable to attend the kickoff.
For more information on the Journey Campaign and the FHSU Foundation, visit foundation.fhsu.edu/journey.