Harvards smallest school, the School of Dental Medicine, aims to raise $8 million in the Universitys capital campaign, the School announced at its campaign launch at the Harvard Club of Boston last Thursday.

The Schools goal represents about .001 percent of the University-wide goal of raising a record-breaking $6.5 billion by 2018. The University launched its campaign last September, following a three-year quiet phase of selecting priorities and gauging donor interest.

Wanda Mock, the Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations at the Dental School, said that the Dental Schools involvement in the larger University-wide campaign helps to draw more awareness to [our] whole campaign than if we were just to have a campaign on our own.

According to the Dental Schools website, its campaign funds will be distributed across two priorities: $6 million toward boosting financial assistance for student scholarships and fellowships and $2 million toward supporting local and global public oral health programs.

We want to attract the best and the brightest students, but we dont have the funds to be able to offer many of them a competitive financial aid package, Mock said. Because of their debt burden many of our students are unable to follow their passion.

More than 75 percent of Harvard dental students per year typically receive financial assistance through a combination of federal, private, and school funding. Tuition at the school is currently $54,200 per year, but total costs can rise as high as $100,000, according to the Schools website.

On its campaign webpage, the School has listed a set of requirements for prospective donors. To establish a named, endowed scholarship or fellowship, a donor must contribute a minimum of $250,000, while a named laboratory requires a donation of $500,000. The website also lists required donation levels to create named professorships, named spaces in the schools Research and Education Building, and an endowed fund for dental students.

Many other schools at Harvard, including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Business School, and the Divinity School, have also launched their campaigns. The Medical School and Kennedy School of Government still have yet to launch a campaign.

Staff writer Steven H. Tenzer can be reached at stenzer@college.harvard.edu.

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Dental School Aims To Raise $8 Million in Capital Campaign