B Is for Billion

What is a billion dollars these days? Merely one-half of 1% of the annual federal deficit. But such a sum would seem beyond the grandest aspirations of higher education. Not so. Stanford University is announcing this week that it will seek $1.1 billion in a five-year fund-raising drive. Aimed at upgrading science research facilities, helping the growing number of students who need financial aid and increasing the endowment from $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion, the campaign is by far the most ambitious in the history of private education. Stanford's closest rival, Columbia University, is in the fifth and final year of a $500 million drive.

With the new tax law making charitable giving less attractive, Stanford's timing may not be ideal. But President Donald Kennedy argues that federal budget cuts and rising costs leave schools like his little choice. "Everybody is running hard and not quite staying even," he says. Stanford broke the $100 million fund-raising barrier in 1960 and was the first to crack $300 million in 1977. "I have some antibodies to the word billion in this connection," Kennedy admits. "Maybe the next word is greedy. But what we're hoping is that the next word is audacious."