USask giving campaign raises over $428 million

Over $428 million has been generated for the University of Saskatchewan’s $500 million giving campaign.

The Be What the World Needs Campaign is raising funds for student funding, research, scholarships and bursaries, and visionary spaces, with the university saying the money is going toward four main areas.

Leading critical research is one of those areas, with money helping increase the number of endowed research chairs, graduate student funding, and undergraduate research experience.

The university said it will also be supporting Indigenous achievement by creating funds for scholarships, bursaries, new programming, learning supports and reducing barriers for post-secondary education.

The next area will have a focus on student success, creating additional scholarships and bursaries, as well as funding technology supports, mentorship programming and other initiatives.

Lastly, visionary spaces will be created across several campuses, upgrading libraries and improving classrooms and labs.

There is a year left in the campaign, with a total $428,322,860.34 raised so far.

The university said more than 18,000 alumni, 1,400 corporations, 5,000 people and 400 foundations have donated.

“Thanks to the incredible support from our community of alumni, donors and friends, we are making remarkable strides towards our goal of raising $500 million. But we need champions to help us cross the finish line,” said USask president Peter Stoicheff.

“Together, we can meet this goal and ensure USask succeeds in its mission of tackling the world’s greatest challenges.”

One of the projects given as an example was a $90-million capital project to transform the engineering building.

“Engineering isn’t an individual sport. The projects are just too big for any one person,” said Lisa Feldman, department head and professor of civil geological and environmental engineering at USask.

“Engineering education isn’t just about students coming here to go to class and then running home again. We want them to have comfortable spaces here to work, collaborate and to learn from each other.”