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UB kicks off Campaign for the Community
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“It’s been very, very clear to me that UB has assumed a leadership position not just in academics, but in the community.”
UB’s 2008 Campaign for the Community kicked off yesterday with its chair predicting that even in tough financial times for the country and the community, the university’s annual appeal will exceed its goal.
David L. Dunn said that since joining the university three years ago as vice president for health sciences, “It’s been very, very clear to me that UB has assumed a leadership position not just in academics, but in the community.”
One of the ways in which it demonstrates this, he added, is through the annual Campaign for the Community, which this year has the theme: “UB People Giving Back: Your Choice. Your Impact.”
With the City of Buffalo ranked the third poorest among the nation’s top cities, Dunn said the campaign underscores UB’s support of a community that is among the poorest in the nation.
The campaign goal of $850,000, he added, “is a little bit less than what was raised last year, but I believe that we’re going to surpass it.”
The campaign was kicked off in a noon-time event in Harriman Hall on the South Campus attended by volunteers, including members of the steering committee and liaisons representing offices across UB’s three campuses, a group Dunn described as “an incredible, well-oiled machine.”
President Simpson also praised the volunteers, as well as UB’s track record of annually ranking among the top universities in the nation “in terms of its generosity and giving back to its community. The kind of leadership we show through the campaign benefits the university, as well as the community.”
Simpson described the Campaign for the Community as “part and parcel of UB 2020,” the university’s strategic plan that will transform it into a model 21st-century public university that will rise among the ranks of the nation’s public research universities.
UB 2020, he noted, is about the university achieving quality and excellence in academics, in research “and in what we do as part of our public service mission” in activities, including the campaign, that impact the communities the university serves.
Through the campaign, UB employees can designate donations to more than 600 health, human services, educational, environmental and cultural organizations. Eighty percent of the money raised by UB employees is designated to benefit organizations within the Buffalo-Niagara region.
Arlene Kaukus, president of the United Way of Buffalo and Erie County, said that last year UB was the single largest contributor to the United Way campaign in the region and led in terms of having the largest number of leadership donations of $1,000 or more.
“You are living your theme because you are giving back and have done that on a sustained based for the community,” Kaukus said, adding, “Your dollars each and every day are making a difference.”
Referring to the financial challenges of Buffalo Niagara and the nation, she noted: “This is a time when those of us who have the most to share must share as generously as we can.”
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