The Campaign for Allegheny

Message from the President

By Richard Cook

For most students today, as it was for many of us, paying for a college education is a hard-fought struggle. Students take out loans, as do their parents; they work at part-time jobs during the school year and full-time during the summers and holidays; many pinch pennies and forgo luxuries.

Scholarships make a critical difference. They allow students to bridge the gap between what they and their families can afford on their own and what they dream of being able to do in their four years of college. Three-quarters of our students receive need-based aid, which means that without the financial assistance we offer, they would be unable to attend Allegheny.

But if paying for a college education is a hard-fought struggle for students, it is equally true that funding scholarships is a hard-fought struggle for colleges. In 2002–2003 Allegheny College spent $18 million to provide financial aid to our students. Only 10 percent of that money came from earnings from our endowed scholarship funds. The remaining amount—$16 million—came from our operating budget.

One of the major goals of Tradition & Transformation, our comprehensive fund-raising campaign, is to significantly add to our endowed scholarship funds. By doing so, we can free up our operating funds to provide much needed support for faculty and student research, equipment for our science and language labs, curriculum development, and other investments in our academic programs.

Elsewhere in these pages you’ll read about Jamie Kimbrough ’03, the first recipient of a scholarship that has been endowed by College trustee Robert A. Marchman, Esq. ’80 and his wife, Fay Chin Marchman. Jamie is just one of our students—now a recent alum—who has benefited from endowed scholarships. I meet students like Jamie every day, and they never cease to amaze me with their commitment to making the most of the opportunities they are offered here.

As Tradition & Transformation continues, I hope you will consider making a contribution toward our endowed scholarship funds. There is no better investment that any of us can make than an investment in the future of the young men and women who are working so hard on our college campuses, with the aim of going out into the world and making it a better place.

The Privilege of Service
by John D. Wheeler ’61, Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Those of us who serve on the Allegheny College Board of Trustees know that it’s a board that gets things done, that is fully engaged, that is passionate about Allegheny College. It’s a board that for me recalls what I experienced as a student at Allegheny: an environment of no-holds-barred learning, lively debate, and respect for other opinions. I’m perhaps most proud that our board has been able to build consensus even on difficult issues. We may not always agree, but we listen to one another, and each of us has the same underlying concern as we debate and deliberate: What is the best thing for Allegheny College?

Without a doubt, the single most significant accomplishment of the board of trustees in the last three years was the planning and development of the Tradition & Transformation campaign. As President Cook never lets us forget, there is no shortage of ideas on this campus—what we need are funds sufficient to bring those ideas to life. Tradition & Transformation will allow us to do that, building the base for the next century of Allegheny accomplishment.

Any number of my fellow trustees have told me—and anyone else who would listen—that although they serve on numerous boards, this board is the one that means the most to them. That’s a pretty amazing thing, considering how hard we work them. But it’s certainly true that when you’re doing work that you love, it seems less like work. And when you’re working in behalf of a place that you love, it doesn’t seem like work at all but a privilege.

This November, I will step down from the chairmanship of the Allegheny College Board of Trustees after three years in that role. And so I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the college community—each and every one of you—and especially my friends on the board of trustees for giving me the privilege of working to further the mission of this wonderful institution. I look forward to continuing to serve as a trustee and to working with the new chair, Marty Pfinsgraff ’77, as he accepts the honor of leading this remarkable group of men and women.

The Skattum Challenge: Building on Success

To inspire new and increased giving to the Annual Fund during the Tradition & Transformation campaign, Dag ’84 and Julie Grosjean ’85 Skattum have made a $1,000,000 commitment in the form of the Skattum Challenge. We are grateful to Dag and Julie for making such a generous investment in Allegheny and to the thousands of alumni, parents, and friends who made the first year of the Skattum Challenge a success. In 2002–2003:

· more than 2,000 individuals made new or increased gifts to the Annual Fund
· more than $500,000 was leveraged as a result of increases in gifts
· the Annual Fund set a new record by raising more than $3,000,000

Thank you for making the first year of the challenge a success!

Now … get ready for year two! The second year of the three-year Skattum Challenge is about to begin, and the parameters have changed a bit. Here is how you can garner matching gifts from the Skattums in 2003–2004.

· If you gave last year and you increase your gift this year, the increased portion of your Annual Fund gift will earn a 1:1 match. Thank you for being a loyal supporter!
· If you have given in the past, but missed last year, then your Annual Fund gift this year will receive a 2:1 match. We want you back!
· If you have never given and you give a gift this year, then your Annual Fund gift will earn a 3:1 match. We want your participation at any level!

Jamie Kimbrough ’03: Semper Fi

“At Allegheny, I learned to appreciate the significance of civic engagement and participation,” says Robert A. Marchman, Esq., ’80. “I learned how to make a difference by being involved.”

Marchman’s involvement in his community stretches in many directions, as does his involvement in the life of Allegheny College, which he serves as a trustee. When the New York Stock Exchange vice president was looking for ways to extend the difference he makes at Allegheny, he and his wife, Fay Chin Marchman, decided to fund a scholarship to honor African-American or Hispanic students for academic achievement.

Now the first recipient of that scholarship, Jamie Kimbrough ’03, is finding her own ways to make a difference. This promising scholar—formerly president of the Association for the Advancement of Black Culture, assistant director of student affairs for Allegheny Student Government, a member of the Jazz and Dance Ensemble, and an AmeriCorps Bonner Leader—began making more of a difference this summer, when she joined the U.S. Marine Corps as a commissioned officer. A history major, she would like to put her liberal arts education to work in the service’s public affairs division.

“ I am very appreciative of this scholarship and honored that I was selected,” Kimbrough said when she learned she was the first recipient of the Marchman scholarship. “That the Marchmans decided to create this honor is amazing, and it makes me happy to think about their continued involvement with Allegheny students in years to come.”

Mary Sceiford ’54

From her twenty-two years with the grant-making arm of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Mary Sceiford is used to seeing dreams become reality—and she also knows it’s a process that involves time and hard work. “I can look at what’s on the air now in children’s programming,” she says, “and see programs that were just beginning when I retired. It’s rewarding to have been there at the beginning of kid-vid such as Arthur and Reading Rainbow.”

“Equally rewarding,” she emphasizes, “has been my long-time membership on the Allegheny board of trustees, a group who truly care about each other and about this College.”

When Tradition and Transformation campaign co-chair Dave Hoag ’60 approached Dr. Sceiford about helping make a college dream a reality—new stained-glass side windows for Ford Memorial Chapel that would re-create the look of the original windows—she knew it was another project that would take time and hard work. Through her generosity, one of the two windows is already being handcrafted in the studio of stained-glass artist John Meyerhoff. Dr. Sceiford is hoping that her gift will inspire another donor to step forward with funding for the second window.

Dr. Sceiford’s gift has also made possible the purchase of new pew cushions for the Chapel (sitting on the old ones, she says, was “like sitting on a sack of potatoes”), refurbishing the original stained-glass windows in the oratory, and the night-time illumination of the Chapel’s beautiful rose window, which is original to the hundred-year-old building.

Her family history has been inextricably intertwined with the College since the 1830s. In the 1900s, eight of her maternal grandparents’ thirteen grandchildren attended Allegheny, so Dr. Sceiford was familiar with campus places, people, and traditions long before she matriculated here herself.

“One of the things we passed down in the family,” Dr. Sceiford notes, “was that you must not graduate from Allegheny College without taking Dr. Ross’s courses. They were right! Julian Ross was a fantastic teacher, a teacher whose courses taught you to think, not just to learn. And that’s what an Allegheny education is all about.”


Opportunities for Giving: Outright Gifts

Many alumni and friends give unrestricted gifts that the College can use in the area of greatest need. Sometimes, however, donors wish to remember through their gifts a special professor, class, experience, or place on campus. These donors, like Mary Sceiford ’54, will occasionally choose to designate their gift for a specific purpose. Dr. Sceiford chose to support the Allegheny College campaign, Tradition & Transformation, through an outright gift to one of the six campaign initiatives, the Campus of the Future. Her gift of a new stained glass window, pew cushions, and the illumination of the rose window in Ford Chapel will transform the look of one of the College’s oldest and most beloved buildings.

Outright gifts are gifts given to the College during the current fiscal year. The gift may or may not be expended during that same fiscal year, depending on the donor’s intentions. Some donors may wish to make a commitment to Allegheny but need time to pay on their gift. The College will extend a donor’s pledge period over three years to enable the donor to meet his or her commitment.

Donors can use a single asset or a combination of several assets to fund an outright gift. Assets accepted by the College include cash, publicly traded securities, and real estate. Depending on the assets chosen, the donor may receive a charitable tax deduction for a gift and may avoid the payment of capital gains on appreciated assets.

Many outright gifts require planning, as well as knowing which assets might be utilized to maximize the benefit to the donor and the College and what funding opportunities are available on campus. The Office of Gift Planning can assist donors in making an outright gift become a reality. Questions and requests for information can be directed to: Julianne Weibel Foltz, Esq., Director of Gift Planning, Allegheny College, 520 N. Main Street, Meadville, PA 16335; 814-332-2735; jfoltz@allegheny.edu.

Contact us at:
(814) 332-2364 or campaign@allegheny.edu
For the latest news on Tradition & Transformation,
visit our Web site: www.allegheny.edu/campaign.