HPU sees $57M in gifts, pledges in past year
Sunday, August 30, 2015
By Pat Kimbrough
Enterprise Staff Writer
HIGH POINT – High Point University students returned to classes last week with $150 million in construction projects underway or recently completed on campus.
A school of health sciences and a pharmacy school being built. The $22 million Cottrell Hall – a hub of professional development for students. A $30 million student housing complex.
The array of projects won’t wrap up until 2017, and there will be plenty more construction activity after that, said HPU President Nido Qubein.
Another $200 million to $300 million of projects that haven’t been announced are expected in the next five to six years, Qubein said.
“We have ideas of what we want to do with additional academic programming, athletics and residential facilities,” he said, adding that there are no plans at this time to expand HPU’s campus.
“Thank goodness we now have land to expand,” he said. “It will all be on campus. We have plenty of land. We’re not looking for land.”
HPU announced Friday that it has received $57 million in gifts and pledges over the past 14 months – all but $8 million of it from outside North Carolina.
“That is a really important point to make, because when you bring money from across the country and you spend it effectively right here in the city of High Point, we are investing all that money in facilities and resources in our city,” Qubein said.
The tally includes two gifts of $10 million, three gifts of $5 million and 17 gifts of $1 million.
Donors are from New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, Colorado, California and Minnesota.
Since Qubein became president in 2005, the university has raised more than $275 million with a capital campaign.
“(The figure) is astounding, to say the least, and we are very, very grateful. It comes from parents (of HPU students) and friends across the country,” he said.
HPU hired 42 new faculty members this year, and has increased its workforce from 385 to 1,425 during Qubein’s tenure.
Enrollment has grown to more than 4,500, with more students coming down the road.
“We’ve said it all along, at some point, we want to get to 5,000 undergraduates and about 1,000 graduates,” he said.
The schools of health sciences and pharmacy eventually are expected to bring 700 new students to HPU. The new physician assistant program brought in its first students in June, and the pharmacy school is projected to start classes in May 2016.
The $150 million building boom is being funded entirely by donations and “philanthropic investors,” as well as operating revenues, according to HPU.
“Not one penny of that is debt,” Qubein said, adding that HPU has $400 million in net assets. “This is a sturdy, solid, sustainable institution that has a very bright future that is founded on the principles this country was built on. We believe God’s hand is in this work. That’s why we are so humbled and grateful for the blessings that have come our way.”