Dear Alumni and Friends:

Just a short time ago, Muskingum quietly took the first steps toward building the future of our College—with the most important and most comprehensive resource development initiative in our history. Today, thanks to dedicated people and unbelievably generous support, I am extremely pleased to tell you that we have received in gifts and pledges more than Muskingum has ever before raised at one time.

Buoyed by this groundswell of love and loyalty from those who believe in the future of our College, on the evening of October 22, 2004, we officially launched The Long Magenta Line:.. The Campaign for Muskingum College. Our target is a record $55,000,000, the amount needed to meet our most immediate and pressing needs and to ensure that the great traditions of our historic College continue.

The Campaign will strengthen our school in crucial ways. Investment in the Annual Fund will support the ongoing programs that make Muskingum the number-one choice of more and more students. Gifts will build our endowment, the financial future of our school.

Additionally, the Campaign will enable Muskingum to complete the master facilities plan designed to upgrade and uplift our entire 225-acre campus. Muskingum only has one-third as much built space per student as its peer institutions. We must still invest in new facilities that will support our students and our programs.

On April 21, 2006, we broke ground for the new Campus Center, the social hub of the College. A magnet where students can meet, gather, socialize, study, or work out, the center will give us a distinct advantage in attracting excellent students, and it will add a meaningful new dimension to every Muskingum student’s education. The effort to create this center began with a wonderful leadership gift from the late Walter K. (“Doc”) Chess '43, for whom the facility is to be named.

A new facility for music is needed. The new music facility will house critically important teaching space for a discipline that is an essential component of a liberal arts experience. A new facility will enable the music program to uphold its longtime standards of excellence in music education and performance.

Look at what has already been accomplished.

• The College has received a challenge grant in the amount of $700,000 from The Kresge Foundation of Troy, Michigan that is designed to help Muskingum receive the remaining gifts and pledges needed to reach the campaign's
  $55-million goal.
• During Homecoming, 2005, the renovated Edgar A. Sherman Field in McConagha Stadium - a gift from Muskingum Alumni to current and future Muskies - was dedicated. Sherman Field now has a $500,000 state-of-the-art artificial playing surface for football that is also available year-round for a variety of student activities.
• On October 22, 2004, we dedicated Philip and Betsey Caldwell Hall, the new, landmark home for Muskingum’s speech, theatre, electronic journalism, and graphic arts programs. Thanks to the remarkable generosity of alumni and friends, Philip and Betsey Caldwell Hall, built at a cost of $11.3 million, is paid for in full.
• We have so far received support for five distinguished professorships and endowed chairs. Such endowment, representing the financial future of our College, will enable Muskingum to compete at the highest levels for the best students, faculty, and staff.
• We have increased faculty salaries by nearly 30 percent, giving us the opportunity to continue to attract the best educators.
• We have grown the size of the faculty by 25 percent, to insure that we continue to offer our students the personal interaction that is a hallmark of Muskingum.
• We have been able to invest significantly in campus renewal and renovation of McConagha Stadium, Brown Chapel, Cambridge Hall, John Glenn Gymnasium, the Quadrangle, and Montgomery Hall. We have constructed new drainage systems, installed major new water lines, and added significant new electrical capacity to meet Muskingum’s needs for the next quarter-century.
• We have built our first dedicated competition field for soccer and built new practice fields for both football and soccer.
• We have constructed a new Wellness Center, the first dedicated health and medical facility in Muskingum’s history.
• We have invested significantly in information technology, a must for education today. Yahoo, the most visited site on the web, recognized these efforts by naming Muskingum one of the nation’s “most wired” campuses.
• We have expanded our programmatic offerings in criminal justice, journalism and graphic arts and have expanded our graduate programs in education to include a Master of Arts in Teaching degree.
• We have introduced innovative new educational opportunities for undergraduates, such as the Muskingum College Center for Planning, the Alumni Leadership Initiative, and the Muskie Fellows Program. These programs are designed to encourage one-on-one collaborations between faculty and students, enhance the connections between alumni and current students, and expanded our valued internship program.

I know that I speak for every student, faculty and staff member at Muskingum when I extend to you my deep appreciation for your dedication and your concern for the future of this hallowed institution. It is with your help that we will build upon the strengths that have enabled generations of Muskies to transform our communities, our nation, and our world. Through the Campaign for Muskingum, we all ensure that Muskingum’s legacy of educational excellence will be shared with new generations.

Thank you.

Sincerely, 

Harold W. Burlingame, ’62
Chairman of the Board of Trustees