Robertson draws on personal UH experience in SA candidacy

By Juliana Coutinho
Daily Cougar Staff

A $27 million expansion of the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library and the Wortham Theatre are on the drawing board this year at UH -- projects made possible partly through an increase in private donations to the University.

"Foundations and corporations have contributed the same way they always have, but individuals are donating more money now than they have ever done," said Associate Vice President for Development Spencer Yantis. 

Yantis said the increase in individual donations has contributed to a 25 percent increase in the amount of money UH received in the past two years.

That fund raising money will help build the $20 million library addition, which will allow for more study carrels, more shelf space and additional electronic access, and will pay for improvements and renovations to the Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre totaling $7 million.

"We are working on building relationships with people who really like the school and would like to contribute," Yantis said. "Now, we are asking for money and some people are just ready to help. The economy is good right now."

If the trend continues, the school should top the $30.4 million that it received in fiscal year 1999 from alumni, corporations and friends of the University.

The fund raising strategy was set as part of the Creative Partners Campaign, a plan involving UH developmental services, colleges' development officers and deans to determine where work is needed and how much capital it will take to get the work done.

But even without a coordinated giving campaign, Yantis said the University should be collecting $40 million a year within five years. But he said the seven percent of total UH fund raising contributed by individuals needs to be increased to keep up with other schools.

"Texas A&M and Texas Tech, for example, receive about 20 percent of the fund raising from individuals," he said. "We'd like to move UH to the average of other urban universities, which is 12 percent."

Yantis, who did his undergraduate work at Texas Tech University and earned his graduate degree at UH, seems to be the man who can make that increase happen. Others describe him as a one-man cheerleading squad for the University, a description that does not seem off the mark.

"I look forward to Mondays. I like coming to work," Yantis said. "I believe in UH and its resources and what it can do for the city. A great city like Houston has to have a great university like the University of Houston."

Yantis has been working at UH since July 1998.