The fund now totals a little over $300,000 toward a goal of $400,000 or more. Donald Fink hopes other contributors will take advantage of the Bloomberg Challenge to complete and enlarge the fellowship endowment.

A resident of Towson, Maryland, Mr. Fink, Engr '59 and '61 (M.S.), retired after 36 years in computer services. He began working with computers at Hopkins in 1959, joined IBM two years later, and in 1968 co-founded a Maryland company with two other Hopkins graduates. He now does financial consulting.

Another alumnus, Alan Levi, A&S '71, is equally delighted about how the Bloomberg Challenge has enhanced his gift to the Krieger School for an undergraduate scholarship. In Arts and Sciences and Engineering, gifts of $50,000 or more for undergraduate aid endowment will be immediately activated by the Bloomberg Challenge, so that a student can be named to hold the scholarship beginning in the fall of 1999.

The Elliot and Marjory Levi Scholarship honors Mr. Levi's parents and their long association with the University. Elliot Levi received both undergraduate (A&S '34) and medical (Med '38) degrees from Hopkins. Marjory Levi was a graduate of Goucher College.

Nephew of the late Hopkins trustee, Baltimore civic leader, and philanthropist Robert Levi, A&S '36, Alan Levi says his gift stems partly from the huge loyalty his family has long felt toward Hopkins, "which has played an enormous role in our lives."

Alan Levi, shown with his father, Elliot Levi, has endowed an undergraduate scholarship in his parents' names that will be activated for fall 1999 by the Bloomberg Challenge.

Mr. Levi continues, "Since he was entering college at the onset of the Depression, it is unlikely my father would have been able to attend Hopkins had he not qualified for a full academic scholarship in 1930. This symmetry makes it all the more meaningful that, as a result of Michael Bloomberg's generosity, this scholarship will become immediately effective."

Alan Levi is a senior vice president at Alliance Capital Management in New York City. Elliot Levi, an endocrinologist, had a private practice in Baltimore from 1946 until he retired in 1983. He is a professor emeritus at the Hopkins School of Medicine.

The Bloomberg Challenge

Within each of the University's divisions Mr. Bloomberg's funds are being used to add to the value of commitments for student aid endowment from other alumni and friends.

The Bloomberg Challenge may immediately activate gifts and pledges for endowed undergraduate scholarships in four divisions. This means that the Challenge provides an immediate scholarship award equivalent to the annual income the endowed fund eventually will generate (i.e., after it is fully funded and has been invested for a year).

Gifts or pledges for graduate-level endowed scholarships and fellowships may qualify for a direct match from Bloomberg Challenge funds, generally 50% or 100% of

the donor's commitment. In most divisions, a total of $500,000 in matching funds is available for com- mitments of graduate-level aid endowment.

For further information, call your divisional development office or 410-516-6321.

On October 10, 1998, Michael R. Bloomberg, Engr '64, announced he was raising his total gift to the Johns Hopkins Initiative to $100 million by the additional commitment of $45 million. In line with the trustees' decision in May that undergraduate and graduate student aid would be top priorities of the rest of the campaign, Mr. Bloomberg, chairman of the Board of Trustees, designated $30 million of the new pledge for financial aid.

Of the $30 million, a full $21 million benefits future undergraduates in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, beginning with the Class of 2003, which enters in fall 1999. How this is being carried out is discussed by Robert J. Massa, dean of enrollment for the Homewood Schools.

To begin with, please give a brief explanation of the financial aid process and how aid packages are determined.

Let me say first that at Homewood, the proportion of students applying for financial aid has increased from 47% to 75% during the 1990s. More than half of Homewood undergraduates are receiving financial aid.

We calculate the expected family contribution based on a federal formula that considers family and student income, the number of children in college, and other factors. The expected family contribution is subtracted from the cost of tuition and expenses to arrive at a financial aid package that can include loans, work-study income, and scholarship support that does not have to be repaid.

For 1998-99, 54% of freshmen are receiving aid, but only 38% receive any Hopkins scholarship support. Up to now, the amount of scholarship support Hopkins has been able to offer has not compared favorably with awards at most other top-ranked universities and colleges.

How will Mr. Bloomberg's gift change this picture for undergraduates at Homewood, beginning with the Class of 2003?

With Michael Bloomberg's extraordinary gift, the University will increase scholarship aid by 25% to incoming freshmen who qualify for financial aid, thus cutting by more than one-third the average debt these students will face when they graduate.

With scholarships increasing, students will need smaller loans. Most students on aid will not be required to borrow more than an average of $4,000 annually through graduation. Some--those students with the greatest needs and the highest academic profiles in the admissions process--will borrow much less.

In addition, Mr. Bloomberg's gift permits a change in policy so that entering students who win non-Hopkins scholarships--from corporations, fraternal groups, or other private organizations-- will no longer see a corresponding reduction in their Hopkins scholarships.

How do you figure the projected reduction in indebtedness?

For the Class of 1999, the average graduation-day debt of undergraduate aid recipients in the Krieger and Whiting Schools will be about $16,600--twice what it was a decade ago. Without increased scholarship aid in place of loans, that figure would rise to more than $21,000 by the time the Class of 2003 graduates. By increasing scholarships and reducing loans, the University projects that indebtedness for the Classes of 2003 and beyond will average closer to $14,000.

One great importance of this lower indebtedness is that graduating seniors will be less restricted financially in pursuing further education or in choosing careers in public service or other fields with modest salaries.

What is the long-range plan to continue this increased aid for Homewood undergraduates?

Mr. Bloomberg's $21 million for Arts and Sciences and Engineering undergrads will be spent over 10 years, beginning in September 1999.

During this period, efforts already well under way will be significantly stepped up to secure gifts from other donors that will dramatically increase the permanent endowment for undergraduate financial aid. In fact, all of the academic divisions are using Mr. Bloomberg's gift to challenge other alumni and friends to endow scholarship and fellowship funds. [For further information, see page 61.] In this way, Michael Bloomberg's commitment is working to leverage endowment that will provide for many future generations of students.

For the present and the future, Mr. Bloomberg's gift and the endowment gifts it engenders are critical in making our university more competitive with its peers for the best students; in enabling qualified students who want to come to Hopkins to do so; and in graduating our students with as little debt as possible.