Trustees Open for Opportunities

When is there ever enough money to go around to fund all the good ideas that must do battle with the limitations of a tight budget?

That dilemma was addressed at Viterbo by the Board of Trustees who individually gave generously to a collective pool of funds that provided almost $320,000 in funding for new and different ideas.

Delighted Viterbo faculty and administrators submitted an array of entrepreneurial initiatives, and “out-of-the box” proposals for consideration.

The process was intentionally made simple and required only a one-page application, which addressed the university’s institutional priorities. The majority of the requests were targeted to enrollment growth and programs to enhance academic distinction.

The entrepreneurial spirit is indeed alive at Viterbo if a sampling of the requests was any indication.

Rick Walters from the theatre department traveled to distant locales to conduct a national drive to recruit students for his program. His travel, complete with an impressive new exhibit, came compliments of the trustee fund.

Stephanie Genz, nursing, was able to get help in filming a recruitment video for nursing and Glena Temple, natural sciences, credits part of the increase in biology students to funding from the trustees, which opened up new opportunities for students to conduct research.

Pat Kerrigan, communications and marketing, wanted to use the Internet and Google to search for top science and performing arts students and he needed funds for this effort.

In all, everyone was so impressed with the results that the trustees again agreed to raise money amongst themselves to fund the project for another year.