From the Trustee Development Committee Co-Chairs

Dear Alumni and Friends:

Earlier this year we called on you to embark with us on a new era for AUB by supporting the Campaign for Excellence. Thanks to your exceptional response, we enjoyed remarkable growth in several areas of giving to the University. We are pleased to tell you that this year, overall giving to AUB reached the unprecedented level of $17,622,868.35, with 2955 donors contributing to the total.

AUB alumni continued to demonstrate their outstanding support this year by making gifts of over $2,878,000, an increase of 18.5% over last year. With 1693 alumni participating, this also represented an increase in the number of alumni donors to AUB. There was also evidence that our supporters made AUB an even greater philanthropic priority than in years past; the average gift to AUB rose an astounding 68% to $5,964.

Alumni were joined by the newest generation of AUB alumni in setting a philanthropic benchmark; for the second year, graduating seniors had the opportunity to give to AUB through the Fingerprints program. In 2002-03 Fingerprints raised $14,573 from 476 students, a dollar increase of 39% and a participation increase of 28% over the last year. What these figures don’t reveal on their own is that Fingerprints has established a tradition of giving among our students that surpasses that found at many American universities with much longer-standing senior gift programs, including a number of elite schools.

Scholarship funding was among the greatest of AUB’s priorities this year, and we were gratified by your response to this need. Among the most creative scholarship funding initiatives was the Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation’s Challenge, which matches gifts to the Endowed Scholarship Fund from donors outside North America. This Challenge, which is ongoing until the end of September 2004, will ultimately result in the creation of a Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation Endowed Scholarship Fund. During this fiscal year, nine new endowed scholarship funds were established, contributing significantly to our ability to aid students in financial need.

Despite the ongoing political and economic challenges which we presently face, your support allowed us to celebrate this as a triumphal year in AUB’s progress. Your continued participation in our Campaign for Excellence, whether it takes the form of a $10 gift, a $10,000,000 gift, or something in between, will see us through to an undisputed position as an international center of academic excellence.

Thank you for your support.

With our best regards,

Kamal Shair and Ray Irani