President Dr. Joseph E. Nyre announced the public launching of Iona Forever, a $150 million fundraising initiative. The announcement came Sept. 19, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of Iona.

The initiative focuses on making the College more affordable to students and setting future alumni up for success.

“New programs, great faculty and a beautiful campus would mean nothing if students can’t afford to attend,” Nyre said. “We must tear down the barriers to affordability so that our students will graduate focused on their future rather than how to pay for their past.”

The money raised for the campaign will be used to provide scholarships for students, support for faculty, advances to academic programs and upgrades and enhancements to buildings and facilities.

In the quiet phase of the campaign, $64.1 million was raised towards the goal, leaving $85.9 million more to be raised over a five-year period.

The money raised so far is over one third of the goal and much more than the expected goal of the quiet phase.

“We’re further than we thought we would be,” Nyre said.

With the affordability of college at the forefront of the College’s mind, Iona looked at how to make tuition more affordable to a larger amount of students.

The answer was to make scholarships a top priority and to minimize increases in tuition and room and board.

The budget committee has played an instrumental role in working to try to keep tuition costs down.

“I’m proud of our faculty and staff on the budget committee,” Nyre said. “They put scholarships above anything else. I would rather give more money to students.”

In making tuition more reasonable, the College tripled the amount of scholarship money available to students, giving out over $40 million in scholarships for this academic year.

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard, the average full-time Iona student pays $27,754 a year. This number includes scholarship provided by the school and federal aid.

“We’re trying to make that lower,” Nyre said.

One of the major aims of the campaign is to enhance facilities around campus. Plans include upgrades to Cornelia Hall, the creation a new business school building, a reconstruction of the Hynes Athletics Center and the development of a performing arts center.

The ceremony also included the induction of 10 new members into the Ginkgo Society, an exclusive group of benefactors who have donated $100,000 or more in unrestricted donations to the College.

The 2015 induction class is the largest class to date.

The members inducted this year are the following: Thomas Corrigan ’57; Ronald DiCicco ’70; Efren W. Gonzalez ’51; the Herman and Henrietta Denzler Trust; Michael F. Klein Jr. ’56; John A. LaVacca ’75; George R. Lewis ’68 MBA; Lucretia Mann ’76, ’78 MBA; Ed Mann ’73, ’74 MBA, and James A. Shea Jr. ’66.