Hope College has launched the largest,
most far-reaching single fund-raising effort in the
college's history: a capital campaign intended to assure
Hope's place as one of the nation's leading Christian
liberal arts colleges as the new millennium unfolds.

Hope College has launched the largest,
most far-reaching single fund-raising effort in the
college's history: a capital campaign intended to assure
Hope's place as one of the nation's leading Christian
liberal arts colleges as the new millennium unfolds.

The college's Board of Trustees announced the $85
million "Legacies: A Vision of Hope" capital campaign
during its annual fall meeting, held on campus on Thursday
and Friday, Oct. 5-6.

With projects ranging from the construction of two
major academic buildings, to the renovation of several
existing buildings, to building Hope's endowment, the
campaign will provide support campus-wide.

"'Legacies: A Vision of Hope' will positively
impact virtually every area of our campus community, both
now and in the future," said Dr. James E. Bultman, president
of Hope College. "I'm very passionate about Hope, and I'm
very excited about the campaign--not so much because of the
opportunity to build buildings, but because of the
opportunity to provide facilities that will enable students
and faculty to perform at the very highest levels."

As of the public announcement, some $54,431,941,
or 64 percent, of the campaign's goal had been raised,
according to national chairs Peter Cook, Peter Huizenga and
Philip Miller. Cook, Huizenga and Miller are also members
of Hope's Board of Trustees.

"Legacies: A Vision of Hope" is organized around
three primary components: construction of a new science
center, which will include expanding and renovating the
existing Peale Science Center; increasing the endowment; and
building the Martha Miller Center for three departments and
enhancing several other facilities.

The science center will double the current
building, expanded to the west to include new classrooms,
laboratories, and office and storage space. Peale Science
Center, which is more than 25 years old, will be updated to
better meet contemporary teaching and research needs.

The expanded building will continue to house the
departments of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, the
geological and environmental sciences, and psychology, with
the department of nursing moving in from its cottage
headquarters on 14th Street. The design will complement the
college's on-going emphasis on collaborative student-faculty
research as a teaching model, with the addition of
interdisciplinary classroom space reflecting the way that
the boundaries between disciplines continue to blur. The
project will cost an estimated $36 million.

The endowment component is intended to provide on-
going support for Hope programs. Currently, Hope's
endowment ranks in the bottom half of the college's peer-
school group. As two examples, while Hope had an endowment
of $37,619 per student during 1999-2000, Kalamazoo College
had $76,950 per student and Albion College had $97,800 per
student.

Goals for additional endowment include
scholarships; faculty research funds and chairs; support for
the academic program, internships and the student
development program; and funds for equipment needs and
library resources. The $30 million sought through
"Legacies: A Vision of Hope" is expected to generate some
$2 million annually.

Although the Peale Science Center expansion is the
largest single project of the campaign, it is only one of
several.

The new Martha Miller Center will house the
departments of dance, communication, and modern and
classical languages, all of which have outgrown their
current homes in the Dow Center, Lubbers Hall and Graves
Hall respectively. Dow, Lubbers and Graves, in turn, will
all be renovated to better serve both the departments and
programs that will remain within them and the college
generally. Work has started on the restoration and
renovation of Dimnent Memorial Chapel to support its
continued intense use not only as a place of worship, but as
a classroom building and as a hall for lectures, concerts
and other college gatherings.

In addition, the college will seek to acquire
neighboring property for both green space and potential
further development. The renovation and land acquisition
components of the campaign are expected to total $19
million.

The campaign's priorities developed through the "A
Vision of Hope" planning process initiated in 1996, during
the presidency of Dr. John H. Jacobson. All members of the
Hope constituency were invited to contribute their thoughts
via mail or e-mail concerning the college's future, with
follow-up meetings held on campus to shape the college's
needs and the visioning suggestions into a plan for action.

"Legacies: A Vision of Hope" is already
benefiting the campus in a variety of ways. In addition to
the renovation of Dimnent Memorial Chapel, projects thus far
include the addition of studio space and a studio organ to
the Nykerk Hall of Music, completed this summer, and ongoing
exterior work on Graves Hall. Thus far, the campaign has
added three endowed faculty chairs and 41 endowed
scholarship funds.

The college's most recent capital campaign was
"Hope in the Future." Launched in January of 1992 with a
$50 million goal, the campaign concluded on June 30, 1994,
having raised $58.1 million.