The ISU Foundation has begun planning for a new comprehensive campaign meant to drum up financial support for the university, although questions of donor privacy and other charitable giving must be addressed.

Jason Menke, associate director of communications for the ISU Foundation, said the program is still in its early stages, and an announcement of the theme and focus of the campaign is due out within the next year or two.

Menke said the Foundation has begun identifying goals and possible obstacles the campaign will have to negotiate.

The Foundation, he said, will have to present a case for donors to support Iowa State before any campaign can begin.

He said letters from ISU President Gregory Geoffroy will be sent out to potential donors asking for their support.

“The Presidential Position Papers are letters focusing on the Strategic Plan and why [donations] to Iowa State are important,” Menke said.

Questions of competition from charities and donor privacy also need to be addressed before the campaign starts, he said.

“‘Why should I give to Iowa State’ and ‘Why should I give now’ are questions that come up in our conversations,” Menke said.

He said events like Sept. 11 and the hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast have caused increased amounts of charitable giving, but to causes other than universities.

During “Campaign Destiny,” the university’s last major funding drive, the ISU Foundation collected single gifts of $34 million in 1996 and $80 million in 1999 from anonymous donors.

“Campaign Destiny” lasted from 1995 to 2000 and raised $458.6 million.

Menke said issues of public records and donor privacy continue to occupy the Foundation in the aftermath of the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling in February that the Foundation’s records should be open to the public.

“I would expect some major gifts during this campaign to be given anonymously,” he said.

In the 2005-06 academic year, Geoffroy and college deans will also visit potential donors in Boston, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Chicago. They will be presenting information about the university.

He said ideas presented in Geoffroy’s installment address of “investing in people” continue to influence the Foundation’s decision-making process about the campaign’s objectives.

“It’s going to be student, program and faculty support,” Menke said, “but there’s also going to be some capital projects.”

Capital-feasibility studies have been conducted for agriculture and biosystems engineering, chemical sciences, the horticulture greenhouse and the statistics departments.

The Foundation will release information on which projects were selected when the campaign is formally announced.

Kenneth Koehler, university professor and chairman of the statistics department, said Snedecor Hall has been considered for facilities work since 1998.

“The plumbing, wiring and mechanical systems are all very old,” Koehler said. “We have a sample survey group that became a center that does research for USDA and extra space is needed for engineering statistics.”

Facilities planning staff have been analyzing Snedecor Hall to see if the needs of the statistics department have changed or if the department has outgrown its space.

“This semester, I’ve got graduate students working as teaching assistants and [some of them] don’t even have desks,” Koehler said.