University Times

Dee Jay Oshry has resigned as Pitt associate vice chancellor and director of the University's capital campaign to become associate vice president/development and campaign director at The Carnegie Institute. He assumed his new duties on Jan. 1.

"The University of Pittsburgh campaign is in very solid shape at this point," Oshry said. Last fall's public announcement of the $500 million Pitt campaign, with 70 percent of the goal committed, "brought us to the stage where it's clear that the campaign will be successful," he said.

The Carnegie Institute's campaign is in its "quiet phase" preceding the public announcement of a goal. Oshry said a major appeal of the Institute job was getting in on the beginning of a new fundraising drive.

"It's the part of fundraising that appeals to me the most," he said. "It's primarily where my own background in fundraising has been. I like the entrepreneurial aspect of starting a campaign and getting volunteers in place, training them and getting everyone on the same page."

No goal has been set for the Carnegie Institute campaign, according to Oshry. "We're literally in the beginning stages," he said. The institute's last campaign, completed seven years ago, raised $139 million.

Looking back on Pitt's campaign, Oshry said: "When we first began discussing the campaign in early 1997, my sense was that it was going to be successful. But I did not in my wildest imagination think that we would do as well as we have done. I think that success is attributable to [Chancellor] Mark Nordenberg's leadership, it's attributable to a very dedicated group of development professionals, led by [Institutional Advancement Vice Chancellor] Carol Carter, and it's attributable to an outstanding group of volunteers and to the University's own importance to this community.

"This was the first Pitt campaign to be run extensively through the use of volunteers, and I feel very proud of that. I think that campaigns require volunteers. They represent the strength of an organization. Pitt's campaign involved somewhere around 250 volunteers."

— Bruce Steele