By Patrick Baron

NORMAL – The Illinois State University Board of Trustees highlighted the university’s fundraising efforts Friday at its quarterly board meeting.

The board applauded the university’s efforts to raise around $21.9 million for Fiscal Year 2018. It’s the fourth straight year the university said it’s fundraising has surpassed $21 million, and it was the second highest fundraising year on record.

Vice President for University Advancement Pat Vickerman explained thousands of the school’s alumni donated to the university. He said the alumni look back at their time at ISU and want to donate in order to further the success of the school.

“The great experience in the classroom, the personalized attention, our alumni appreciate the value of their ISU degree and that’s causing them to give back,” said Vickerman.

ISU has been fundraising for some time as part of its Redbirds Rising campaign. Vickerman said the school is nearing its end goal, but there is still a ways to go.

“The overall goal is $150 million, we’re at $121 million right now,” Vickerman explained. “We have 23 months left in Redbirds Rising so the end goal for us at this point is that $150 million towards June 2020.”

Vickerman noted while the school is very appreciative of the alumni support, ISU still depends on funding from the state. He said the state passing a balanced budget fir the first time in years was a step in the right direction, but said with the successes ISU has had in recent years, the school needs more funding than what it is receiving.

“We don’t want private gift support to replace state funding, we’re a public institution,” Vickerman said. “15 percent of our budget comes from the state of Illinois and we want to continue that.”

Patrick Baron can be reached at [email protected].