Largest Campaign In Depaul University History Supports Business Students And Programs

In a few words, DePaul University’s Many Dreams, One Mission campaign is an historic initiative undertaken by one of America’s great universities. DePaul’s largest capital campaign will enhance, expand, and assure its ability to deliver on its founding promise: An excellent education for any talented student seeking one.

Support through the campaign for the College of Commerce and the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business will help to secure DePaul’s status as one of the nation’s top centers of business education. Built on a foundation that blends service with scholarship and fortified by its prominent role in the economic life of its city (Chicago), DePaul’s College of Commerce is nationally ranked for the excellence of its education and the diversity of its student body. The college is known as well for its engagement with vibrant financial markets locally and internationally and for responsiveness to pressing issues in business and society.

An investment of $80 million from the campaign’s $250 million fund-raising goal will solidify Commerce’s position in the top tier of American business schools by building endowments to recruit and retain leading faculty, nurture groundbreaking business scholarship, and foster innovation in business pedagogy. As it fortifies the promise of an excellent education, the campaign will increase resources for business scholarships and fellowships, so that students from all walks of life will have access to the vital resources necessary to begin or advance successful and impactful careers.

$24 Million Investment In Faculty Excellence

DePaul’s College of Commerce faces a challenge shared by top business schools across the country: A highly competitive market for great faculty, due to a shrinking pool of business scholars possessing doctoral degrees. Rapid enrollment growth over the past two decades enabled DePaul to hire top faculty from the nation’s best institutions, which in turn attracted top students and, ultimately, even more prominent faculty. With that period of rapid growth winding down, the college must continue to invest in its faculty, the foundation upon which the Commerce’s national reputation is built.

Campaign gifts will help the college establish new endowed professorships in four critical areas: marketing, management, accountancy, and finance/economics.

Endowment support for research and teaching will help translate the best scholarly research and professional practice into superlative classroom experiences. The Legacy Fund for Faculty Excellence, just one of several initiatives the campaign will fund, will provide faculty with resources that cater to diverse learning styles and encourage collaboration and innovative thinking. Further, new fellowships will reward faculty with time and resources to pursue specialized scholarship and research.

$38 Million Investment In Teaching Excellence

The campaign for DePaul will provide resources for commerce to invest in centers of excellence, which help incubate and disseminate leading-edge business concepts and encourage partnerships with corporations, agencies, and non-profits. These include:

• The Real Estate Center, a regionally dominant and nationally prominent hub of real estate education, research and community service

• The Center for Financial Services, which, in an age of rapid change, is meeting the demand for a new kind of finance professional

• The Arditti Center for Risk Management, which trains students to navigate the highly complex fields of risk management and financial engineering

• The Center for Sales Excellence, one of only six such centers in the country, investing in professional education for Commerce’s diverse student body to assure graduates are equipped for sales positions without further training

• The Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, infusing Vincentian values and ethical reflection in the classroom and collaborating with business leaders to integrate corporate governance and ethics with business strategy

• The Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, ranked among the top five entrepreneurship programs in the country, where DePaul students and community entrepreneurs receive professional education, strategic advice and supportive partnering

Gifts to the campaign will also support investment in the college’s new School of Hospitality Leadership, with the number-one challenge of providing state-of-the art hospitality education to meet the industry’s growing shortage of qualified, professionally trained managers. Funds will build the school’s faculty and programs, attract and retain students from diverse backgrounds, and leverage significant collaboration with the hospitality industry in Chicago, one of the nation’s top five tourism markets.

$18 Million Investment In Dreams

Any private university dedicated to providing opportunity for all students must assure that any student it admits is able to attend. In keeping with DePaul’s historic commitment to serving all communities, the campaign will also provide resources for endowed and expendable scholarships and fellowships. The school’s reputation for excellence is an empty promise if it doesn’t deliver on its commitment of helping to create opportunity among one of the most diverse student bodies of any leading business school. With new endowment support, the College of Commerce will further diversify and strengthen its student body.

In addition to commerce-specific resources, the campaign seeks to raise $100 million for student financial aid across all colleges. Among private universities, DePaul has been among the very few to assure that students of limited means are able to achieve their dreams. In an era in which a college degree and the attendant skills of lifelong learning have become essential to economic success, DePaul remains dedicated to assuring the dual promise of its core mission.