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Momentum from the Beginning
Upon completion of Augsbury Physical Education Center/Leithead Field House in 1971, a 20-year period of more or less constant building activity came to an end, and fund-raising endeavors slowed down. But not for long. Campaigns may ebb and flow, but needs do not, and soon they were presenting their persistent visages once again. A $30 million, seven-year campaign was announced in 1973, with two-thirds of the goal assigned to endowment and more new buildings and the remainder to operating expenses and special projects. Named Enterprise St. Lawrence, its slogan was “A Challenge to Enrich a Heritage of Quality and Independence.”
“Enterpris” was tackled with enthusiasm in all quarters, thanks in large part to the passionate and energetic leadership of President Frank P. Piskor, but a national economic malaise hurt the effort, causing a revision of the goal and the strategies for reaching it. Ironically, though, the original goal was surpassed within the campaign's time frame, and Enterprise St. Lawrence wrapped up on June 30, 1980 , with $31.2 million in capital and annual funds. In announcing its success, President Piskor expressed what is at the heart, when the phone calls and letters and rallies and celebrations and bricks-and-mortar construction are stripped away, of every campaign: “St. Lawrence has been in modern times a fine liberal arts college. What we have done with Enterprise is to accelerate its movement along the continuum toward greater strength, real quality, and more realistic public recognition.”
Many consider the 1980s a “quiet” decade, and perhaps accordingly at St. Lawrence those years were witness to a “quiet campaign” (meaning in part that it was devoid of kick-off galas, wrap-up celebrations, fancy publications and the like). Begun in 1984 with a goal of $20 million, it concluded on December 31, 1988 , having gone 10% over its goal. An article in the Spring 1989 St. Lawrence noted that during the span of the campaign the University's endowment rose from $41.7 million to $76.5 million.
The article also summarized other benefits: “As the 1988-89 academic year approaches its end, St. Lawrence's successful Freshman [now First-Year] Program involves all freshmen for the first time. Specialists in African and Latin American studies have been added to the faculty. Expenditures for student financial aid have doubled since 1984. For the third year in a row the Alexander String Quartet has performed in concerts and classes as artists-in-residence. A program in Japan is well established, and internships in Spain and Kenya have added a critical component to those programs.”
Capital Campaign Action Team chair and future Trustee Karen Diesl Bruett '66 said at the time, “We wanted a special campaign in the '80s to heighten awareness of St. Lawrence and identify a new group of alumni, parents and friends. We believe we're now in a good position to discuss St. Lawrence's future needs and how we can help to meet them.”
Her words were prophetic. Just as the Appleton Arena campaign set the stage for the record-setting drives to follow, the “quiet campaign” of the late '80s paved the way for the University's most complex, public and successful effort to date, Campaign St. Lawrence, which commenced in the mid-90s. That campaign, whose initial goal of $75 million was extended and increased to $130 million in the presence of ongoing success, concluded on December 31, 2002 , with $132.2 million raised or pledged.