UC San Diego will raise a record $200 million in private donations during the fiscal year that ends on June 30th despite a a variety of serious problems in its fundraising operation.

“We thought it would be about $190 million, but we’ll make it to $200 million,” Chancellor Pradeep Khosla told the Union-Tribune. “We’ve raised $1 billion during our capital campaign, and will raise another $1 billion.”

The campus is about half-way through a ten year, $2 billion campaign that is raising money for everything from student scholarships and endowed chairs to new buildings and expanded research programs. The school is in the “quiet phase” of the campaign, a period in which it builds momentum before the effort goes public.

UC San Diego was scheduled to start the public phase this November. But the start date that was pushed to next spring or summer following the largely unexplained departure of fundraising chief Steve Gamer earlier this year. The university has subsequently said that its fundraising program is understaffed. And a private report by a university consultant said that the school lacks close relations with hundreds of thousands of potential large donors. The university also is having serious problems raising donations from its more than 165,000 alumni.


Despite the problems, Khosla has said the campus is capable of raising $200 million a year for a sustained period. The figure is a lot for the campus, but small compared to other schools. UCLA is in the midst of a $4.2 billion campaign, and the University of Southern California is raising $6 billion.

Khosla also said in a brief interview this week that UC San Diego will finish the current fiscal year with at least $1 billion in sponsored research grants, maintaining the school’s status as one of the 10 largest research universities in the country.