Lawrence’s More Light! campaign continues its upward momentum. Despite a difficult economic climate last year, alumni and friends of the college added an impressive $21 million to More Light! bringing its total to $125 million.

Now, as the More Light! campaign officially enters the second year of its public phase, its focus is shifting from very tangible aspects (such as the Warch Campus Center, Memorial Hall renovation and other capital projects) to one that focuses on people — namely professorships, scholarships, Lawrence Fellows and other ways that promote Lawrence’s people and programs.

New initiatives

This fall Lawrence welcomed its third group of Posse Scholars to campus. As Lawrence continues its efforts to diversify further its student body, these multicultural cohorts of students from New York City serve to enrich the student body and bring new energy and enthusiasm to campus.

Trustee Harold Jordan ’72 and wife Mary Donn Jordan ’73 presented the college with $250,000 specifically earmarked for the Posse Program. This generosity, in keeping with the college’s mission, is creating a life-changing experience for these young and ambitious students.

The generosity of Tom ’60 and Julie Esch Hurvis ’61 continued with a $160,000 gift for expendable scholarships. These dollars will be used to provide scholarships for underrepresented students — with the first students receiving their awards next year.

Tom Hurvis and Julie Esch Hurvis with Lawrence Posse scholars

The Hurvises also provided the college with a $1 million pledge to create an endowed fellowship. “Tom and Julie clearly understand the benefits of the Lawrence Fellows program, which has brought exciting new ideas to Lawrence through courses such as Theatre for Young Audiences, allowed us to explore new disciplinary areas such as Balinese gamelan music, added collaborative colleagues for our professors in areas such as plasma physics, and allowed us to add to curricular areas such as Film Studies and Native American History,” said Lawrence President Jill Beck. “I am deeply appreciative of the Hurvises’ generosity, but equally of their advocacy for the value that this program brings to our university.”

Student research projects will benefit for the first time from the Chester J. Hill, Jr. Memorial Fund. “The number of students seeking summer research collaborations with our faculty has increased in recent years,” said Nancy Wall, associate dean of the faculty and associate professor of biology. “The Chester J. Hill, Jr. Memorial Fund will support outstanding students conducting summer research, an important and successful form of individualized learning at Lawrence.” Disbursements from this endowed fund will also support Lawrence’s Senior Experience and Honors projects. The fund was established through a gift from the estate of John W. Mitchell. Mitchell married Virginia Hill Jacobs in 1976. Virginia was the widow of Chester James Hill, Jr., who was a professor of psychology at Lawrence.

Trustee Match

The excitement continues to build for Game, Set, Match! A new initiative from the Lawrence Trustees to provide a dollar for dollar match for up to $3 million in new or increased donations to The Lawrence Fund.

So far nearly 1,400 alumni, parents and friends have participated utilizing more than $318,000 of the challenge. This includes 1,014 donors who did not give last year. If you haven’t yet gotten into the game, please use the envelope in this magazine to make a gift or pledge now.