News & Notes: Harvard launches $6.5 billion fundraising campaign

Harvard announced on Saturday its first major fundraising campaign in over a decade. With a $6.5 billion target,the push is believed to be the largest campaign ever by a university, according toReuters.

According to the university, roughly 45 percent of the funds will go toward teaching and research, a quarter will be allotted to financial aid and student life, 20 percent to building projects and 10 percent to flexible funding. Specific goals includeexpansions of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and upgrades to residential buildings.

The campaign has already collected pledges of $2.8 billion from 90,000 donors. Fundraising was officially launched on Saturday and included a speech by former Harvard student Bill Gates. Harvard's last fundraising campaign, which concluded in 1999, raised $2.6 billion.

In 2009, after Harvard saw a 27.3 percent fall in its endowment, the university postponed construction of a $1 billion science complex.The university's 2012 endowment recovered to $30.7 billion.

Harvard's fundraising efforts come on the heels of Stanford's $6.2 billion effort last year and Princeton's five-yearAspireCampaign, which concluded with $1.88 billion raised in June 2012.