Hope College has launched the largest single fundraising effort in the college's history, a $175 million comprehensive campaign that will benefit every student as it adds several new buildings and provides major boosts to the college's endowment.

Hope College has launched the largest single fundraising effort in the college's history, a $175 million comprehensive campaign that will benefit every student as it adds several new buildings and provides major boosts to the college's endowment.

Hope announced the "A Greater Hope" comprehensive campaign on Friday, Oct. 14, in conjunction with the college's Homecoming Weekend and following the conclusion of the fall meeting of the college's Board of Trustees.

The effort will result in major enhancements to the campus and community landscape, including the construction of a concert hall and music building on Columbia Avenue at Ninth Street, an art museum on Columbia at 11th Street and a student center in the central campus adjacent to the historic Pine Grove.  The endowment support will be equally significant despite being less visible, and will contribute $30 million for student scholarships and another $20 million for faculty-student collaborative research, a signature part of the Hope experience for which the college has repeatedly received national recognition across the years.

"I'm very excited about the campaign and what it will do for students' educational experiences at Hope," said President Dr. James E. Bultman.  "Hope is good - really, very good - across the board, but our goal is to be the best:  the very best that we can be."

"This comprehensive campaign, when completed, will make a great Hope even greater, so that young women and men who choose to study here will have the physical, financial and human resources necessary to become all that God intends for them to be," he said.

The campaign includes $80 million for endowment, including scholarship and faculty support; $72 million for the construction and maintenance endowment of several capital projects; and $20 million to be raised through the annual Hope Fund, with a remaining $3 million currently undesignated.

Through the end of September, more than $132 million had been raised.  The campaign effort is tentatively scheduled to run through June 30, 2013, contingent upon the successful conclusion of fund-raising.

Four couples who have been involved in the life of the college for many years, six of the eight individuals since their days as students, are serving as co-chairs of the campaign:  Jim and Ginger Jurries of Holland, Dr. A. Paul and Carol Schaap of Grosse Pointe Park, David and Carol Van Andel of Ada, and Bob and Cheri VanderWeide of Ada.  In addition, Connie Boersma of Holland and Marjorie Maas of Holland, both of whom have also been active members of the Hope community for decades, are serving as honorary chairs of the campaign.  Jim and Ginger Jurries, Dr. A. Paul Schaap, David and Carol Van Andel, and Cheri VanderWeide are all alumni of the college, as is Connie Boersma.

The construction projects will span the campus, from an engineering addition to VanderWerf Hall on Hope's westernmost side, to the construction of a tennis complex at its easternmost, near Holland Municipal Stadium.

The largest of the projects, a concert hall and music facility ($33 million construction and maintenance endowment goal), will be constructed facing Columbia Avenue between Ninth and 10th streets.  It will include an 800-seat auditorium - the first major acoustically superior concert space in the college's history - and a 125-seat recital hall, as well as offices and practice rooms for the department of music.   Currently, the college's major concerts on campus have taken place in Dimnent Memorial Chapel, which will continue to host events such as Christmas Vespers.  The department of music will be relocating from Nykerk Hall of Music, which was constructed in 1956 when Hope's enrollment was 1,100 students instead of the current 3,200.  A $10 million lead gift from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation provided the stimulation for the project.

Nykerk Hall will be removed and the site will house the new student center ($21 million construction and maintenance endowment goal), which has received a $10 million lead gift from the Bob and Cheri VanderWeide family.  The center will be connected to the DeWitt Student and Cultural Center, which opened in 1971 as a student center but gave much of its space to college offices following the 1980 burning of the Van Raalte Hall administrative building.  The building, to be named for President James E. Bultman and his wife Martie Bultman, who are retiring at the end of the school year, will support a student-life program that has also grown substantially since 1971 as enrollment has increased.

The Kruizenga Art Museum ($5 million construction and maintenance endowment goal) will be built on Columbia Avenue at 11th Street, immediately northeast of the De Pree Art Center.  The museum will provide much needed exhibition space for the college's extensive Permanent Collection as well as visiting exhibitions, with additional support for curation of the collection.  The museum will complement the De Pree Art Center, which will also continue to host student exhibitions in its gallery space in addition to housing the offices and faculty and student studios of the department of art.  The museum is being named in honor of a leadership gift from Dr. Richard and Margaret Kruizenga of Dallas, Texas.

The growing department of engineering will receive additional space through construction of an addition ($4 million construction and maintenance endowment goal) to the northwestern side of VanderWerf Hall, which currently houses the department as well as the departments of computer science, mathematics and physics.  The expansion will include purpose-built laboratory space for students enrolled in engineering design courses as well as for co-curricular projects like Formula SAE.  The project has been supported through a leadership gift from Holland-based Haworth Inc.

The campaign includes a total of $9 million in improvements along with a maintenance endowment for the college's athletic facilities on the eastern side of campus, several of which have already been completed.  The Boeve and Wolters baseball and softball fields opened in the spring of 2008, and the Van Andel Soccer Stadium - funded through a leadership gift from David and Carol Van Andel - was dedicated in October 2009.  Earlier this fall, Hope began construction on a 12-court outdoor tennis facility east of Holland Municipal Stadium, space that will complement the indoor DeWitt Tennis Center.  The courts are named for Earle Vande Poel and George Heeringa, doubles partners on the Hope tennis team in the 1930s, and made possible by a leadership gift from the Ted and Barb Etheridge family.

The endowment portion of the campaign includes support for student scholarships, collaborative student-faculty research, outstanding faculty, and initiatives in international and multicultural education and spiritual life.  As of June 30, the college's endowment totaled $155 million.

The $30 million for scholarships is primarily supporting need-based awards.  Currently, approximately 43 percent of the college's endowment is directed toward student scholarships and awards, with about 63 percent of Hope students receiving need-based aid and 92 percent receiving aid based on either need or merit.  The increased aid will help keep Hope affordable for talented and deserving students, and supports the college's on-going effort to broaden the geographical, racial and international diversity of the student body.  A total of 76 new endowed scholarships have been established through the campaign to date.

The campaign's endowment focus includes $20 million for faculty-student collaborative research, which has received support through a leadership gift from Dr. A. Paul and Carol Schaap.  Hope currently has one of the largest summer undergraduate research programs in the country in the natural and applied sciences, with approximately 170 students conducting research with faculty full time between May and August.  Students conduct research part-time with faculty mentors across the school year.

Another $20 million in endowment is being sought to support outstanding members of the faculty in their teaching and research.  So far through the campaign, the college has added eight endowed professorships, an endowed art museum curator position, 20 departmental discretionary funds and two new faculty development funds.

A total of $10 million in endowment will support existing and new initiatives in international and multicultural education and spiritual life.  Projects range from the Children's After School Achievement (CASA) program and Phelps Scholars Program, to the World Christian Lecture Series.

In addition to the campaign initiatives, the $175 million total includes the annual support being raised across the duration of the campaign through the college's Hope Fund.  Based on gifts given to the college each year, the Hope Fund provides critical support for on-going operations of the college, ranging from maintaining the campus and providing supplies for classrooms and laboratories, to helping fund scholarships for needy students.

Additional information about "A Greater Hope" is available online at www.hope.edu/agreaterhope.