W&L INVOKES PAST TO FINANCE ITS FUTURE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 11, 1992                   TAG: 9202110142
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
W&L INVOKES PAST TO FINANCE ITS FUTURE
George Washington in the study with a pen.
It sounds like a guess in the game of Clue, but there's no mystery at Washington and Lee University as to where that line came from.
It was in a study at Mount Vernon (most likely, anyway) that Washington first drafted a letter offering $50,000 in James River Canal stock to save Liberty Hall, which was renamed Washington Academy in his honor, and later became Washington and Lee University.
Administrators say it is only fitting they should gather near that same room - the site of the first major act of philanthropy in the school's history - to kick off a $127 million capital campaign.
The festivities for kicking off the national three-year campaign are scheduled to take place Wednesday.
"No one knows exactly what room he was in," said Farris Hotchkiss, vice president for university relations at W&L. "But there's a study that adjoins the dining room and and there's a fair chance that's where he wrote the letter. Certainly he wrote it in the house."
The letter now is in the university's library, but you can bet it will be pulled out as inspiration now and then during the campaign.
The national kickoff date, which falls on Abraham Lincoln's birthday, is one of the world's worst-kept secrets, Hotchkiss said. Officials have been working on the campaign for 18 months, soliciting gifts of $100,000 or more from selected alumni, parents, friends, corporations and foundations. So far, $55.2 million has been raised.
The money will go toward the university's endowment, and also will help improve campus facilities, pay for a new science building, aid the fraternity renaissance program and provide a new performing arts center.
Hotchkiss hopes that with several years to make good on their commitments, people will find a way to contribute to the fund.
At the time the donation was made in 1796, Washington's gift was the largest to American higher education. It is still part of the university's endowment, and last year paid $3.91 toward the education of each student.
Tuition alone at the private university is around $12,000 per year.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB