Marshall University President Dr. Stephen Kopp says he never had any doubts the university would raise enough money to match the Bucks for Brains funding.
The state Legislature got the program rolling back in 2008 when they offered up $50 million to be split 70/30 between West Virginia University and Marshall. The catch — in order to pull down that money, the universities had to match it dollar for dollar.
Last week, Marshall University reached their fund raising goal of $15 million.
“We had donations of $50 and $100, $1,000 to go along with a whole spectrum of gifts that ranged up to $5 million,” according to Dr. Kopp.
Allied Realty Company handed over a check to MU worth $150,000 on Thursday hitting the $15 million mark. But Kopp hopes this is not the end to the Bucks for Brains program.
“We have tremendous momentum in this campaign and we’d like to see it continue,” Kopp said. “We’d like to see the state continue to invest one-time money in support of research.”
Kopp says initially it wasn’t easy getting friends of Marshall to fork over the funds. That’s because the money they donate doesn’t go anywhere.
“None of those funds from the state or the gift monies from donors are spent,” explained Kopp. “What is spent on research are the proceeds or the interest earning from those endowments.”
It’s a perpetual fund for applied research.
“The goal is to increase job growth in the state and this is one way we can do it through the bio-science sector,” the president said.
It took Marshall five years to meet their goal. WVU finished up its $35 million fund raising last January.