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Dalton State College officials announced today that the DSC
Foundation’s Fulfilling the Vision Campaign has exceeded its
original goal of $20 million to support the stated aims of the
College over the next decade.
In a public ceremony held in the Janet and Stan Goodroe
Auditorium on campus, Sis Brown, Chair of the Fulfilling the
Vision Campaign, announced that gifts and pledges to the
campaign had reached $21.1 million. The money raised will be
used to expand the campus, invest in academic programs, and
offer new opportunities for student scholarships and faculty
support.
“When we launched this campaign two years ago, we were confident
of the community support for the College, but we never dreamed
that we would surpass the original goal by such a margin,” she
said.
“This achievement was made possible by the countless hours and
tireless efforts of many volunteers who got involved with this
campaign.”
“Fulfilling the Vision: The Dalton State College Campaign for
Educational, Economic, and Cultural Advancement in Northwest
Georgia” is the first-ever major fundraising campaign in the
College’s 40-year history.
The four strategic aims of the campaign are growing the campus,
strengthening academic programs, enhancing student
opportunities, and bringing the campus and the community
together.
“We’re excited to announce that plans are already underway for
the Center for Northwest Georgia for History and Culture, a key
academic component of the campaign,” said Brown.
“We’re also making headway on the new bell tower and quadrangle
that will be open this coming fall semester, and we’re able to
establish a number of new scholarships and new faculty support
initiatives thanks to the early success of our campaign.”
In addition to these projects, the Foundation has already begun
expanding the campus with targeted property acquisitions.
“We recently acquired the Wood Valley Apartments and a separate
parcel of 77 acres on the College’s north end,” said DSC
Foundation Chair Bob Buchanan.
“During the campaign, we received a gift of 22 acres on the
south end of campus which will allow us to grow in ways that
were not possible even a few years ago.”
Buchanan said that support for the campaign included gifts
and/or pledges totaling $4.5 million from the Foundation’s Board
of Trustees. A record ninety-three percent of the College’s
faculty and staff made campaign commitments. A total of 638
donors both on and off campus contributed.
This support is critical, say College officials, because many of
the campaign’s objectives can only be funded with privately
raised gifts. Scholarships, land acquisition, professorships,
and other initiatives cannot be funded with state dollars.
“While Dalton State is and will remain a publicly-funded
institution of the University System of Georgia, the reality is
that only with significant private investment will we be able to
sustain the College’s current rate of growth,” said Dr. Jim
Burran, President of Dalton State.
“Initiatives like this one will ensure that the College
continues to fulfill its mission of providing open access to
higher education for all citizens of northwest Georgia.”
Opening its doors in 1967 to its first 524 students, Dalton
State today is home to more than 4,530 students from 26 counties
in Georgia, four different states, and 42 foreign countries. The
DSC Foundation’s assets have grown from $3,987 in 1967 to more
than $30 million today.
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