The executive committee of the College's Will to Excel capital campaign voted Friday to extend the deadline of the fund drive by four months, giving Dartmouth until Oct. 7 to reach its $500 million goal.
With the committee's decision, which had been expected, the new conclusion date will fall exactly five years after the campaign was first publicly announced.
The fund raising committee said it is still "unanimously committed to achieving" the $500 million goal by June 30, even though the executive committee voted to extend the deadline "to provide added time for continued progress against unfulfilled priorities."
As of Oct. 1, Dartmouth still had to raise $59 million to meet the $500 million target.
A large portion of that amount includes money designated for Faculty of Arts and Sciences endowments and the general scholarship fund.
The extension came almost exactly one year after the campaign planning committee suggested Dartmouth increase the amount it was aiming to raise by $75 million, or 17.6 percent, from the original target of $425 million.
Development Publications Director Jack DeGange said last week that ending the campaign in October was not technically "extending" the deadline because the campaign never had set a formal end after the increase.
"I am terribly pleased at the way the campaign has gone so far," said Trustee Richard Page '54, who heads the executive committee.
The deadline was extended to help fulfill a number of "unmet needs within the Campaign," Page said. "Endowments for the continued scholarship fund are needed to maintain the College's need-blind admissions policy."
Page said the athletics portion of the endowment is less than halfway toward its objective.
He said Dartmouth needs resources and grants from alumni and friends to maintain the College's "preeminence." U.S. News and World Report magazine recently named Dartmouth the finest teaching institution in the nation.
"We need to achieve our goals through strength of purpose, collective generosity, and in short, our own will to excel," Page said.
