The number of graduate fellowships has risen from 0 to 37. And I reiterate that all of this has come about from gifts of our alumni and friends. Several people work very hard to achieve this success, starting with our current development staff of Carter Boydstun and Ed Blue. And by no means can we rest on these successes. We need more scholarships, and our need is particularly great in fellowships to cultivate stronger graduate programs.
Graduate students are needy, almost by definition.
Each year we invite the graduate Fellows and their fellowship donors to a celebratory dinner that is a truly extraordinary evening. Anyone who can listen to these rising scholars stand before us and describe their current work and their plans for the future without feeling good about this next generation has to have a thick and crusty heart. It is a marvelous occasion, and I've always thought that if we could just get more prospective donors to experience the scholarly excitement of that evening, we would surely meet all our fellowship goals. The other areas in which we raise money are also success stories, but space does not permit more here. Recall, however, that a new campaign is about to commence, one that will without doubt be even more successful than the first, and CLAS faculty and students will be the benefactors.