Last October, the University launched its Venture Forward campaign, a three-pronged effort to engage alumni, expand awareness of the University’s impact and vision for the future, and raise funds for University initiatives.
In the months since its launch, the money raised by the campaign has contributed to several ongoing programs and is slated to support a variety of future University endeavors.
A few of the largest projects that Venture Forward is supporting include the development of the West Windsor Lake Campus and the two new undergraduate residential colleges: New College East and New College West. It will also support the construction of Hobson College, which will replace First College and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2026.
“The new undergraduate colleges and the Lake Campus development have both benefited from the leadership of early participants in the University’s engagement and fundraising campaign,” said Eisgruber in his Feb. 3 “State of the University” letter.
On Nov. 15, 2021, Venture Forward received a donation from Blair Effron ’84 and Cheryl Cohen Effron to establish the Effron Center for the Study of America. The center supports research in American Studies scholarship and offers new courses that explore questions on America and what it means to be American.
“Venture Forward will help raise philanthropic support for the University’s Bioengineering Initiative, including funding to create a bioengineering institute that will support research and teaching," said Deputy University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss in a statement to The Daily Princetonian.
“It will also support a bioengineering facility, part of the environmental and engineering neighborhood outlined in the campus plan,“ he added.
Along these lines, the funding will also finance new facilities for environmental studies to serve as a hub for University researchers to collaborate on environmental matters.
According to Hotchkiss, the campaign will also dedicate efforts to raising support for scholarships and fellowships in the spirit of sustaining the University’s commitment to providing 100 percent of need-based financial aid as the student body grows.
For example, a portion of Venture Forward donations will benefit the recently-established Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity that is supporting initiatives in college access and opportunity and serving as a hub for research and innovation in college access and success.
Venture Forward also introduced the launch of Orange & Black Day, a new annual celebration of alumni engagement which celebrates Charter Day—the birthday of Princeton University.
Hotchkiss emphasized the University’s commitment to innovation and new ideas in his comments to the ‘Prince.’
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“Venture Forward helps us tell the story of Princeton’s forward thinkers (faculty, students, alumni, staff), who are daring to ask the questions that will move the world from the present to the possible,” said Hotchkiss.
Desmond Lam is a staff news writer for the ‘Prince.’ He can be reached at dl2015@princeton.edu.