Record donations propel SEMO toward academic and facility enhancements

At the start of the academic year, SEMO had earned a record-breaking $9.88 million from gifts from alumni and other outside sources.

Last year, alumni contributions funded several significant academic and construction projects, such as the Cyber Command Center in Dempster Hall, new pitch-calling technology for the baseball team, the marching band's trip to Indianapolis for Bands of America, university farm upgrades, Support for Special Collections and Archives at Kent Library and many more.

According to SEMO’s website, SEMO saw a 12 percent increase in the number of donors.

Wendell Snodgrass, vice president for university advancement and executive director of the SEMO Foundation, said a portion of the funds will likely go toward technology and construction projects, with scholarships being the primary focus of their fundraising efforts.

“From a scholarship perspective, many of our students either receive endowed scholarships or restricted scholarships, and that helps keep the cost down for our students,” Snodgrass said. “We also have programmatic things that help fund technology here at the university. We also do capital improvements as well, and so those outside gifts help us tremendously at the University for those types of things.”

However, SEMO’s website also notes that a lot of the money will go toward the Transforming Lives campaign.

SEMO president Carlos Vargas announced the Transforming Lives Campaign during the homecoming celebration, claiming it was the largest comprehensive fundraising campaign in SEMO’s history.

In his announcement, Vargas explained that the Transforming Lives Campaign aimed to earn $60 million for a new health sciences building to replace Dearmont Hall, a partnership with International Business Machines (IBM) for a new cyber command center, fundraising for the next phase of Houck Stadium and a third arts complex building.

After his announcement on Oct. 13, Vargas said in an interview with the Arrow the campaign would significantly improve SEMO for the students.

“This fundraising campaign is going to be very important for the university because it’s going to help us improve our academic programs, our classrooms, our facilities, our technology, even athletics, so it’s a very meaningful effort we’re making all in the benefit for our students,” Vargas said.

SEMO’s website explains that the four pillars of the Transforming Lives comprehensive campaign are academics, athletics, facilities and technology. As of August, the university has achieved about 75 percent of its $60 million goal.

Snodgrass noted a significant portion of the funds came from SEMO's most recent Giving Day, which raised $359,000.

He added that alumni can help SEMO not only through donations but also by offering jobs and internships to students and helping recruit future students.

He believes the majority of alumni who choose to donate do it simply out of kindness and relationships the university has built with former students and members of the community.

“Philanthropy is why they are giving back. They got something out of it when they were here, and now they're giving back to make sure that you as a student are able to receive something as well,” Snodgrass said.