Sept. 17, 2007

Athletics Initiative
This past weekend, we had two events on campus to celebrate the successful conclusion of the Athletics Initiative, a two-year fundraising campaign to support our athletic program. The biggest challenge that we face as an athletic department is the fact that we do not have the financial resources of many of the athletic programs that we compete against, particularly those in the Big Ten. Recognizing this, we decided to move forward with the Initiative, and the main goal was to increase our endowment in support of athletic scholarships (by far our largest budget expense on an annual basis). Our goal was to raise $15 million through the Initiative. When we started the Initiative, we were last in the Big Ten in terms of endowment in support of athletic scholarships, with only $11 million in support of our scholarships. As a result of the Initiative, we more than doubled the amount of our endowment.

In all, we raised approximately $17 million through the Initiative. In addition to endowment in support of scholarships, we endowed two coaching positions - Dan and Susan Jones endowed the head football coach position and Chris and Courtney Combe endowed the head women's lacrosse coach position. The Initiative also had a facility component. We raised money for new locker rooms, meeting rooms and offices for our men's and women's basketball programs. Construction has started on these new facilities and, when completed, they will be a tremendous benefit to our basketball programs. I would like to give special thanks to all of the donors to this Initiative. Their generosity will help ensure the long-term financial stability of our athletic program.

Non-Conference Success
Our fall teams are nearing the end of the non-conference portion of their schedules, and are about to start conference play. Both our men's and women's soccer teams have played well in the early part of the season. The men's team is currently ranked 10th in the country, and opens Big Ten play at Ohio State on Sunday in a game that will be nationally televised on the Big Ten Network. The women's team is 4-1-2 and looks like it is poised to take a big step forward this year. Both soccer teams should benefit from our spectacular new Lakeside Field. We will see increased attendance for our home games, particularly night games, and the new facility will be a great help in recruiting. Our volleyball team is off to a solid start, going 9-2, and winning three tournaments. Our football team suffered a disappointing loss to Duke on Saturday, but sits at 2-1 with a chance to go 3-1 in the non-conference portion of the schedule. We open conference play at Ohio State on Saturday.