At noon on Thursday, October 13, UC Riverside launched the kick-off for Living the Promise: The  Campaign for UC Riverside at UCR’s iconic bell tower.

This comprehensive campaign is the first of its kind for the University of California, Riverside, with a target completion date in the year 2020.

A week of celebratory events followed the launch including large and small festivities and research symposia on campus and around the region.

Campaign co-chair Dr. Thomas Haider declared, “We are very proud to announce that the goal for Living the Promise: The Campaign for UC Riverside is $300 million. It’s a very ambitious goal, but we are more than halfway there.” To date, UC Riverside has secured $155 million in gifts, more than 51% of the goal.

UCR Library has its own goal as part of the comprehensive campaign. Fundraising efforts by the Library’s development team to date have generated more than 71% of our target in contributions.

University Librarian Steven Mandeville-Gamble stated, “We’ve had such a strong start that I would love to see the library blow right past our goal.”

He added, “The library’s campaign priorities include facility enhancements, endowed support for collections, funding for paid undergraduate and graduate student internships, endowed librarianships, and a Science Fiction research center in collaboration with CHASS.”

What would reaching these goals mean in terms of impact the library could have on UCR’s students and faculty?

Right now, the library’s impact is somewhat restricted by the assets, talent, or funding that we currently have. Having more resources would allow the library to:

• enhance existing library spaces to serve the next generation of Highlanders
• design and build new library spaces to increase community engagement
• create more employment and internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students
• foster innovation and entrepreneurship
• enhance our information resources in quantity, quality, and diversity
• support leadership positions that will help guide us toward the library’s and the university’s strategic vision

Reaching our campaign goals will truly enable us to become a library of the future.

“It’s time for us to make the mark in the world that we and our students and our faculty and our staff all deserve,” commented Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox during the campaign kick-off.

The campaign has designated six key themes, “Solutions that change lives,” including: social innovation and empowerment, new voices and visions, health and wellness, from genomics to harvest, emerging technologies, and renewable nature.

As one of the few university departments connected to every field of study on campus, the UCR Library is uniquely poised to support all six of the comprehensive campaign’s themes.