CEDARVILLE, Ohio — Cedarville University is well on its way to hitting a $125 million campaign goal.
It’s the largest fundraising campaign the university’s set out on in its history.
University officials say they’ve been surprised at how fast the money has come in, but ministry partners and alumni have helped to make it happen.
They’re hoping to complete the fundraising portion within 1,000 days.
So far, they’ve raised over $95 million, which is surprising since many schools are still struggling to recover from the pandemic.
“Where some schools are seeing a decrease in enrollment and that’s helped us to be able to make sure we’re also solid financially,“ said Cedarville University President Thomas White.
With money on hand, construction on the athletic center addition has already started along with groundbreaking on a new women’s dorm.
White said the dorm is needed because “we actually had students in overflow spaces. With those students in overflow, that’s not an ideal situation so we’re building an additional dorm that will house those students next fall and we’re building additional classroom spaces as well.”
As construction moves forward, White said they’re looking further down the road as they raise money.
With the school already debt-free, they want some of that money to be put aside as a way to help sustain the school if federal dollars couldn’t be obtained in the future.
At the same time, they’re also looking at helping students cut down on debt.
“We want partners to come alongside and help provide the scholarships, provide that endowment so that our students will be able to attend so that they’ll have the availability of this worldview that we present through our educational model and walk out with a reasonable amount of debt or no debt,” said White.
Just a couple of years in, White said the hope is to raise all of the money and then finish all building projects within four years.
