LAST FRIDAY was an exceptionally happy day for me. My gift of $1 million is a thank you to the University for all of its gifts to me as a student, staff member, faculty member and alumnus. For over 35 years I have had the incomparable privilege to be associated with Thomas Jefferson's proudest legacy. It is time to repay my beloved University -- the best public university in the country -- for giving me so many wonderful opportunities over the years.
When I think back on the past three and a half decades, it is the spectacular people of the University I most remember, people who looked out for me even when I didn't deserve it (and that was frequently). There are many individuals from the past and present faculty, administration, staff, Alumni Association and Board of Visitors I intend to honor in some way in the future. They deserve to be remembered by succeeding generations because they put the institution and the students first, and themselves second.
One such person was the late Edgar Finley Shannon, Jr., who served as president of the University from 1959 to 1974. How lucky I was to have such a humane and brilliant mentor! Inspired by his example, I first promised him some thirty years ago that I would try to make a substantial gift to the University, should life give me the opportunity. I'm delighted to fulfill that promise.
As Edgar Shannon's successor, President John T. Casteen, III, seeks to raise over $3 billion as part of a new capital campaign, all of us who love the University must step up to the plate. While the Commonwealth will continue to make contributions to the institution's welfare, the golden age of state funding is over and it is not coming back. This inescapable fact creates an urgent reality. Now is the time for all loyal alumni and good friends to come to the aid of their University. We all need to remember how much our lives were enriched, intellectually as well as financially, by means of the education the University delivered to us, and to remember how fortunate we are to have "worn the honors of honor."
Now I call upon my fellow alumni to join me in this effort. There are so many ways to give and so many needs that must be met if future generations of students are to realize the fruits of a first-rate education, as we did.
I'm particularly pleased that my gift will enable the University to become the national leader in youth and adult civic education by strengthening the Center for Politics and providing it a permanent home at a restored Birdwood Pavilion. Surely Thomas Jefferson would have been especially supportive of this goal, given his political career and his hope that the University would be a beacon of enlightenment for the entire nation. The University and the Center for Politics intend for substantial space in Birdwood to be reserved for the constant use of classes, student organizations, faculty departments and staff members. Birdwood will now become what we have all hoped it would be for decades: a major, new extension of Mr. Jefferson's academical village for the enjoyment and education of all.
If a teacher can save and donate a large gift, thousands of other University alumni can do the same, whether in life or by means of a bequest or other estate gift. Having now had the experience myself, I can tell you that you will never feel more fulfilled than the day you sign off on a major gift. Every University alumnus has favorite causes, as well as cherished memories of certain professors, departments and student organizations. The capital campaign gives each of us the opportunity to create a legacy somewhere within this wonderfully diverse University.
Larry J. Sabato is the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics and the director of the Center for Politics.
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