Seven years ago in 2007, St. Edward’s completed a $65 million fundraising effort, raising $5 million more than their initial goal in just three years. 

Today, Feb. 20, University President George Martin and Michael Larkin, Vice President of the University of Advancement, revealed that since that university record-setting campaign ended in 2007, they have quietly raised $70.1 million.

And they’re not done. Along with their $70.1 million dollar confession today, they unveiled a plan to raise another $30 million by 2017.

With campaigns as ambitious as this, “You have to test the amount you hope to raise,” Michael Larkin said to explain why they waited to announce their goals.

The $70.1 million raised so far has contributed to major on-campus projects and renovations including the John Brooks Williams Natural Sciences Center, the renovated Alumni Gym, Chapel, and Munday Library and Learning Center. Pat and Bill Munday’s donations of nearly $34 million — $13 for the library and $20 in scholarship — make up almost half the amount raised. 

While campus improvements were a large part of this most recent campaign, scholarships and other funding for students and faculty is the focus, Larkin said.

“As a Holy Cross institution, success is about learning who you are, who you can be, and who you ought to be,” Larkin said. He believes that these efforts have hinged on providing “access, excellence, and success” for St. Edward’s students.” 

The University will announce the public phase of the “Campaign for St. Edward’s University” today in the midst of Homecoming Week as families, alumni and faculty gather on the Hilltop to celebrate the school, its traditions and its history.

With this new campaign and the previous “A Special Destiny” campaign, Larkin and Martin have raised more than $144 million for St. Edward’s since 1999 when Martin joined the school as president. 

In 2004, St. Edward’s “A Special Destiny” campaign was jumpstarted by a $7.5 million dollar gift from Houston businessman John Brooks Williams. Nine years later, the two buildings of the John Brooks Williams Natural Science Center stand near the heart of campus and are open to all students. 

This time around, the public fundraising opens with the news of a $1.1 million gift from Luci Baines Johnson and Ian Turpin. The new Johnson-Turpin CAMP Enrichment Endowment Fund is designed to provide further college advancement opportunities for CAMP students.

Among the opportunities provided to 10-12 CAMP students each year will be career and internship support, financial literacy education, research opportunities and study abroad assistance.

Among the six campuses funding the children of migrant workers within the College Assistance Migrant Programs in Texas, St. Edward’s is the oldest. Started in 1972, the program follows on the heels of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” legislation of the 1960s. 

The gift from Johnson’s daughter, Luci B. Johnson, an alumna from 1998, and her husband, Ian Turpin, is a continuation of her father’s mission of social justice. 

“It is only right that our major gift to St. Edward’s gives opportunity to the descendants of migrant workers who inspired my father’s commitment to social justice. Daddy believed these young people had all the potential to achieve great things if only given a chance,” Baines Johnson said in a statement.