MSU exceeds fundraising campaign goal

With the acceptance of a gift valued at more than $2 million, Missouri State University has ended a multiyear fundraising campaign roughly $42 million ahead of its goal.

The university's Our Promise Campaign - which had a quiet opening Sept. 1, 2005, and launched to the public Aug. 28, 2009, ended with a final tally of $167 million, ahead of its $125 million goal, according to a news release.

During a lunchtime ceremony today, school officials announced a donation benefiting the school's agriculture and psychology departments from Neal Shealy, comprising his 250-acre Fair Grove Farm that includes livestock, a conference center and other facilities. The gift is valued at more than $2 million and also establishes the Mary-Charlotte Bayles Shealy Chair in Conscientious Psychology.

The farmland donation would allow MSU's agriculture students and teachers to have hands-on experience, while the psychology chair would allow psychology students to explore the concept of conscientiousness, a focus of Shealy's work.

“For 50 years my work has focused on safe and effective ways to relieve pain and depression,” Shealy said in the release. “In the past two years, it has become increasingly obvious that conscientiousness is the key to restoring health and longevity.

"The Mary-Charlotte Bayles Shealy Chair of Conscientious Psychology puts Missouri State University at the forefront throughout the world in developing this important field of psychology.”

The Our Promise campaign includes 16 gifts valued at more than $1 million and 34 above $500,000. A total of 73,270 contributed to the campaign, the release said.

“Their gifts, like all gifts to the campaign during the past seven years, are a testament to the impact Missouri State has had on alumni and the community during the years. We are humbled by the outpouring of support, which is so crucial today," MSU President Clif Smart said in the release.