By January 2005, the campus must raise an additional $468,000 in private gifts and grants to create an endowment to maintain the equipment in perpetuity.

The campus is more than one-third of the way toward its goal; as of mid-November, $164,283 had been pledged.

“We want to be at the $200,000 mark by the end of this calendar year,” Nancy Dailey, vice chancellor for external relations, told a breakfast meeting of campus employees Oct. 29. She asked administrators, faculty, staff and students to contribute toward a $70,000 campus goal. “It’s not the amount that you give that’s important, but that you participate,” she said.

“We are especially pleased with the response from IU Kokomo’s support and administrative staff,” Dailey said. “Many sizeable gifts have been received from them. It shows how much they care about the campus and its students.”

Michael Sandy, president of IU Kokomo’s Student Government, said he will propose a contribution competition in the early new year among academic majors.

For years, students have used science equipment that dates back to the mid-1960s, when IU Kokomo built science facilities as part of its Main Building. Those labs had inadequate ventilation, recalled chemist Phillip Haffley. Equipment shortages have often forced students to watch simulations of experiments rather than carry out experiments themselves.

Science classroom and lab space tripled with the opening of Hunt Hall, and while the State of Indiana funds building projects for public universities, it does not pay to equip them.

The endowment is part of a total $935,000 project, which will allow for equipment purchases and a $585,000 endowment. Other contribution goals include:

• $356,000 from communities and individuals in the 11-county service area;

• $60,000 from IU Kokomo board members;

• $215,000 from corporations and foundations.