Dare northward – a financial update
In October 2017, Colby launched “Dare Northward,” a massive fundraising campaign designed to elevate student experiences at the College in many different areas. The campaign has focused on making the College more affordable to students of all backgrounds, building and opening new facilities across campus, enhancing on-campus labs to promote academic innovation, creating the DavisConnects center for student employment and internship opportunities, and investing in Waterville to foster a stronger campus-community relationship.
While these goals have been aggressive and optimistic, Colby has shown that they are achievable. In the last few years, a great deal of structural change has come to Mayflower Hill and to the surrounding Waterville community, thanks to this campaign. Some of these changes include the new Harold Alfond Athletic Center, the Alfond Commons downtown dorm on Main Street, the transformation of Grossman dorm into DavisConnects, and the newly opened Lockwood Hotel, currently housing students. Other building projects are still in the works, including the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts and the Paul J. Schupf Art Center; both of which are scheduled to be completed in the coming years.
There are many other achievements that are not marked by the construction of new buildings, though. Colby has also successfully enhanced academic resources by establishing centers such as the Linde Packman Lab for Biosciences Innovation and the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment. The campaign has also expanded specific academic departments and their curriculums. Specifically, Dare Northward has targeted mathematics and statistics, global studies, computer science, art, and creative writing, which has led to the hiring of several new faculty members within each of these disciplines.
Lastly, the College recently announced the establishment of an academic program in Artificial Intelligence (AI), which was created as a result of a $30 million dollar gift from Andrew Davis `85. This program is slated to be available to students next fall and will be one of the first AI programs at a liberal arts institution in the United States, marking another crowning achievement of the Dare Northward campaign.
The success of this campaign and its many initiatives have only been possible due to the massive fundraising effort by the College and its administration. Since 2017, Colby has raised roughly $600 million dollars of its $750 million goal, with donations coming from over 22,000 individual donors. This comes out to roughly $27,250 per donation — an incredible display of support by alumni and friends of the College.
At this rate, which is roughly $14.3 million dollars per month, Colby is set to reach its goal of $750 million within the next year. This is well ahead of the June 2023 target, which was set back in 2017. As a result, Colby will be well-positioned to continue with their academic and student experience enhancements until 2023 and beyond, marking a prosperous and successful era for the College. This achievement is even more impressive considering the severe financial implications of COVID-19.
It will be interesting to see how the College continues once the Dare Northward campaign has come to an end. Will Colby continue to make impressive developments, both on campus and in the larger community? Will fundraising continue to be such a focal point for the College, or will they focus on the development and success of the new innovative additions to the College? Time will tell, yet this campaign has proven that Colby is dedicated to being one of the top liberal arts colleges in North America, and this dedication will surely continue long after 2023.
~ Sam Leathe `21
