After gathering for the groundbreaking of the new Gottesman Libraries, the College Community moved en masse, as if it were a movable feast, to the cafeteria, where it held a joyous celebratory end to the most successful Capital Campaign in the College's history.

Joseph Brosnan, the Vice President for Development and External Affairs, stood near a tote board that read $151.6 million. He called the Capital Campaign the largest of any school of education in the country. "I'm proud of that accomplishment and I'm proud of the promise that we made to the TC Community six years ago. But, I'm most proud of the fact that the dollars we raised have gone particularly to student scholarships and faculty professorships."

"We raised," he added, "almost $43 million for these two objectives, which will strengthen TC now and into its future."

He then went on to thank the College Community, the alumni and the Trustees, especially Antonia Grumbach and Jack Hyland, the Board Co-chairs. He gave special thanks to the senior staff of the College and to those in Development and External Affairs who made the campaign results a reality.

Finally, he gave his most overwhelming appreciation to President Levine. Brosnan said, "We could have not succeeded with this campaign without the vision, the passion, and the leadership of Arthur Levine. Arthur's enthusiasm and energy were unflagging and inspiring. His ability to articulate the mission and his ability to inspire others to dream large dreams played a vital role enabling TC to exceed our campaign goal."

Levine stepped to the podium and in-turn thanked Brosnan for "dreaming large." Candidly, the President said, "I'm happy, and I'm enormously relieved. I can't believe we've done it. This was a time in which a lot of campaigns have stalled. And we've done it. We made it. Our Capital Campaign was a success." Flipping the chart with $151.6 million emblazoned on it, the President's actions brought down the house.

Levine called the Campaign exceptional because it succeeded despite a recession. "The Campaign was also exceptional because it gathered resources to meet national and international challenges. But today, I think, is a time not to focus on the challenges, but to celebrate the success as a community. The Capital Campaign has done a lot of things for us. It brought us financial stability in a time which others are experiencing very rough environments. But what it has done is it has allowed us to be activists, to move the education agenda forward."

Levine, too, expressed his gratitude directly to the Board of Trustees. He went on with, "Boards of Trustees are fascinating creatures. You joined a governing board and you do it because you care about an issue-and the issue in this case is education and schooling and underserved populations-and you came to this Board because of this passion and then what you have to do is go raise money or give money to an institution that is committed to doing that. That's an extraordinary thing to ask of people."

Levine noted that the Board Chairs, current and past, Antonia Grumbach, Dinny Morse, Pat Cloherty, Jack Hyland, and Bill Rueckert, Vice-chair John Klingenstein, and Campaign Committee Chairs Jim Benkard and Elliot Jaffe, made this campaign possible.

He then announced that "This Board contributed $32 million. That's 21 percent of the total. What it has allowed us to do is rebuild the infrastructure of this College. The last time that this happened was when this place was founded more than a hundred years ago."

"That funding," Levine reminded the community, "permitted us to begin the job, continue the job, of bringing this institution to where it needs to be for the quality of faculty and students that we have here. It's the Everett Lounge, it's Milbank Chapel, it's new computing centers, it's Grace Dodge seminar rooms, it's smart classrooms, it's the Gottesman Libraries that we just came from, it's Milbank, it's the new Cowin Center, it's new dormitories, it's Horace Mann Auditorium-but that's only the edifice!"

The President spoke of the academic initiatives of the campaign and what was realized. "What really matters, what really, really matters," he said, "is that with the help and support of this campaign we can build the heart and soul of this college. We raised more than $51 million to recruit new faculty, to expand the strength of academic departments with seven new professorships. An additional $35 million was raised to provide assistance to programs to conduct research and shape policy, to reach into Harlem and improve the quality of the schools there, to enhance the teachers, and to build the strength of administrators. The capital campaign is giving us the ability to move beyond 120th Street in ways we never could have imagined. And what it is doing for us is also helping us with what we need most."

His final remarks were aimed at the students sitting in the cafeteria. He said, "One of the things I said when I arrived at Teachers College was that I desperately wanted to do my graduate work here. I had been admitted here, but I couldn't afford to come because there was no financial aid. What this campaign has allowed us to do is raise money for financial aid. We raised more than $29 million for financial aid, and that will make a difference in lives."

Those sentences brought resounding applause from the audience.

The event closed with remarks from the Board of Trustees Co-chair, Jack Hyland. He looked out and spoke directly to the students with a short but important message. "It is upon you that the future of this institution is built and you become our emissaries-and may I say, as we salute you all, that there will be another campaign another day, and our object will be to increase the amount of money that we can afford to give students in student aid. We will look to you to celebrate the future!"

Published Monday, Oct. 6, 2003