Dear AU Community: 

Today I am proud and grateful to announce that, through the AU community’s generosity and vision for the future, we have met our record-setting $500 million goal in the Change Can’t Wait campaign. 

American University is a community of changemakers who elevate, inspire, and lead. We launched Change Can’t Wait: The Campaign for American University—to expand our capacity to create change and fuel our shared purpose.  

Through Change Can’t Wait, this community stepped up to give generations of Eagles the jet fuel they need to fulfill their purpose and meet the demands of tomorrow. Over 23,000 alumni, nearly 9,000 faculty and staff, more than 1,900 students, and almost 9,000 parents, have now accepted our call to action—creating a total of 72,000 gifts.  

And Change Can’t Wait isn’t finished yet—every gift made before the end of our fiscal year on June 30 will count! If you haven’t yet joined our campaign for change, now is the time.  

As we celebrate this achievement, I want to recognize and offer my heartfelt thanks to the Board of Trustees and the University Campaign Committee, including co-chairs Alan Meltzer, CAS/BA ’21, Peter Scher, SPA/BA ’83, WCL/JD ’87, and Jeff Sine, SIS/BA ’76, as well as our volunteer leaders from across the university who have helped to bring this vision to life.  

The Change Can’t Wait campaign has already made an incredible impact—creating four new or expanded centers and institutes, eight endowed faculty positions, more than 170 scholarships, and more. It has helped AU to set our ambitions higher than ever before—and to articulate our key priorities. It has helped our alumni and friends to invest philanthropically in our future. And most importantly—Change Can’t Wait brought our community together to support generations of Eagles to come.  

In my last days as president of American University, I am so proud to share this accomplishment with all of you. Stay tuned for a community-wide celebration of Change Can’t Wait with the Celebrating Changemakers Festival on campus, September 28!  

Thank you, Eagles, for making change possible. 

Sincerely, 

Sylvia