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An article from the L.A. Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucimed9apr09,1,5270495.story
UCI Nears Fund-Raising Target for Hospital
University has most of the $10 million it needs to persuade regents to approve a $365-million replacement for its Orange medical center.
By Jeff Gottlieb, Times Staff Writer
UC Irvine has raised three-fourths of the $10 million it needs to show University of California officials they should approve final plans for a new $365-million medical center when the UC Board of Regents meets next month.
The $10 million is similar to good-faith money that must be raised before the official fund-raising campaign can begin.
"I think that will go a long way to resolving anxiety at the level of the regents [and high-ranking UC administrators]," said Dr. Ralph Cygan, chief executive of UCI Medical Center in Orange, which the new facility would replace. "It's been clear we've got to demonstrate community support for this project."
If the project is approved, UCI needs an additional $40 million for the center, which UCI Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone said is the university's top fund-raising priority. The remainder will come from $17 million in UCI hospital reserves, $235 million in state bond proceeds and the rest in other bond funding and equipment leases.
The medical center, like hospitals statewide, must meet seismic safety standards by 2008, an expense so great that university officials decided it would be cheaper to build a new one. This also provided a chance to exchange what was once the county hospital in Orange County, built in the early 1960s, for an academic medical center designed for teaching and research.
Fund-raising for the proposed seven-story hospital coincides with a weak economy that has left many nonprofits struggling for contributions.
UC officials have not set a specific fund-raising target to hit by the regents' May meeting but want to see "significant progress" toward the $50 million, Cygan said. "We've decided in the vicinity of $10 million is what we will deem to be in that ballpark."
Cygan would not comment on what would happen if the $10-million goal was not reached. "We will be at or near $10 million," he said.
Cygan said that UCI Medical Center has raised $7.5 million in the last five months, including four or five gifts of $1 million to $1.5 million. He declined to name the donors.
UCI officials hope a new hospital will help boost the medical school into the top ranks nationally by attracting new professors and providing better facilities for doctors and students, while rubbing off on the rest of the campus.
"It's a huge opportunity," Cicerone said. "It will lift the medical school and with it the value people see in UCI."
University officials are telling donors that "all things being equal, we want you to support this hospital effort," Cicerone said. "It means a lot of other things won't get done temporarily, but this is that important."
The chancellor said a two- to three-year campaign will officially start in late spring or early summer with announcements of large gifts and support from prominent people. The target may grow to $75 million to $100 million to add endowments and scholarships.
Cicerone acknowledged the stock market losses make fund-raising more difficult. "It won't be as easy as the year 2000 or early 2001," he said.
UCLA is receiving about $300 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild its Westwood hospital complex, which was damaged in the Northridge earthquake. But because UCI's medical center came through the 1994 temblor unscathed, no federal money was available for the retrofitting.
In January, the 26-member Board of Regents approved the hospital's design and certified the environmental impact report. Cygan said administrators in the UC president's office wanted to see some initial fund-raising success before seeking final approval from the regents.
"The $10 million bandied about is simply recognition of the first milestone, and I would not characterize it as some sort of irrevocable threshold," UC spokesman Chuck McFadden said.
Cygan and Cicerone acknowledged that the regents could have questions that would postpone a decision.
"We'd like to get full approval at the May meeting, but if for some reason there's something about the project and they say, 'We want you to come back in two months,' the world will not come to an end," Cygan said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucimed9apr09,1,5270495.story
UCI Nears Fund-Raising Target for Hospital
University has most of the $10 million it needs to persuade regents to approve a $365-million replacement for its Orange medical center.
By Jeff Gottlieb, Times Staff Writer
UC Irvine has raised three-fourths of the $10 million it needs to show University of California officials they should approve final plans for a new $365-million medical center when the UC Board of Regents meets next month.
The $10 million is similar to good-faith money that must be raised before the official fund-raising campaign can begin.
"I think that will go a long way to resolving anxiety at the level of the regents [and high-ranking UC administrators]," said Dr. Ralph Cygan, chief executive of UCI Medical Center in Orange, which the new facility would replace. "It's been clear we've got to demonstrate community support for this project."
If the project is approved, UCI needs an additional $40 million for the center, which UCI Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone said is the university's top fund-raising priority. The remainder will come from $17 million in UCI hospital reserves, $235 million in state bond proceeds and the rest in other bond funding and equipment leases.
The medical center, like hospitals statewide, must meet seismic safety standards by 2008, an expense so great that university officials decided it would be cheaper to build a new one. This also provided a chance to exchange what was once the county hospital in Orange County, built in the early 1960s, for an academic medical center designed for teaching and research.
Fund-raising for the proposed seven-story hospital coincides with a weak economy that has left many nonprofits struggling for contributions.
UC officials have not set a specific fund-raising target to hit by the regents' May meeting but want to see "significant progress" toward the $50 million, Cygan said. "We've decided in the vicinity of $10 million is what we will deem to be in that ballpark."
Cygan would not comment on what would happen if the $10-million goal was not reached. "We will be at or near $10 million," he said.
Cygan said that UCI Medical Center has raised $7.5 million in the last five months, including four or five gifts of $1 million to $1.5 million. He declined to name the donors.
UCI officials hope a new hospital will help boost the medical school into the top ranks nationally by attracting new professors and providing better facilities for doctors and students, while rubbing off on the rest of the campus.
"It's a huge opportunity," Cicerone said. "It will lift the medical school and with it the value people see in UCI."
University officials are telling donors that "all things being equal, we want you to support this hospital effort," Cicerone said. "It means a lot of other things won't get done temporarily, but this is that important."
The chancellor said a two- to three-year campaign will officially start in late spring or early summer with announcements of large gifts and support from prominent people. The target may grow to $75 million to $100 million to add endowments and scholarships.
Cicerone acknowledged the stock market losses make fund-raising more difficult. "It won't be as easy as the year 2000 or early 2001," he said.
UCLA is receiving about $300 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild its Westwood hospital complex, which was damaged in the Northridge earthquake. But because UCI's medical center came through the 1994 temblor unscathed, no federal money was available for the retrofitting.
In January, the 26-member Board of Regents approved the hospital's design and certified the environmental impact report. Cygan said administrators in the UC president's office wanted to see some initial fund-raising success before seeking final approval from the regents.
"The $10 million bandied about is simply recognition of the first milestone, and I would not characterize it as some sort of irrevocable threshold," UC spokesman Chuck McFadden said.
Cygan and Cicerone acknowledged that the regents could have questions that would postpone a decision.
"We'd like to get full approval at the May meeting, but if for some reason there's something about the project and they say, 'We want you to come back in two months,' the world will not come to an end," Cygan said.
