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I M PACT
totle and Plato, when Greece was at its zenith, theatre was seen as an important way to gain perspective on one’s life. They didn’t talk about it in terms of quantitative data like we do today, but it was widely acknowledged that a good, healthy life was one that involved the arts. Only in the last several hundred years has the Western mind sought to pull these things apart into separate disciplines. Certainly there are positives to that, but what it has also done is dissected our knowledge. I like to think that this is the beginning of the era of putting things back together again. By “wellness,” do you mean emotional and mental wellbeing, or physical health too? We’re talking about a holistic, mind-body way of addressing human health. There’s significant quantitative research coming out now addressing things like whether the arts can mitigate stress or extend lifespan. Those are things that can be looked at from a physiological standpoint. And much of the data says that human health can be improved by the arts as much as it can be by pills in some instances. Is just viewing or watching or listening beneficial, or do the benefits come mainly from actually creating? Participating is always better than viewing. It’s like when you exercise and get your endorphins going. The act of creating is good for both your mind and your body. Of course, going to museums, going to concerts, going to plays — that’s certainly helpful too. There was a study in Canada that tracked people who made it their business to visit their local museums regularly and found that they were both happier and healthier. Still, most of the models that our foundation
supports get at the participative angle — getting children, caregivers, older adults to draw, to sing, to compose. How receptive or resistant is the medical community to these ideas? It’s more a lack of awareness than resistance. A medical education is very deep and very narrow, so a lot of doctors simply haven’t thought about these other tools they could work with that can produce very good results, particularly when it comes to older patients, patients with chronic diseases, chronic pain, patients receiving palliative care, these kinds of things. The medical school curriculum is so full that there’s not really time for students to learn how they can utilize the arts in their practice. But things are changing. Some medical schools are starting to make more room in the curriculum. At UCF, there’s an active student and faculty organization called Arts in Medicine that promotes the benefits of art for their own health and that of their patients. It’s really wonderful to see students advocating for that. That’s part of why I love this area so much — it’s still kind of a baby, but there’s so much promise and opportunity.
PERSPECTIVE
The Power of Endowment Although we didn’t plan it this way, five of the six stories about donors, gifts and impact in this annual report involve endowment giving. It’s a form of philanthropic support that’s vitally important to public and private universities, and yet it isn’t widely understood beyond the boundaries of campus. In the simplest terms, an endowment gift is a donation that is kept rather than spent. Most other gifts are used quickly to meet the needs of the recipient organization. But an endowed gift is invested and carefully managed by the recipient. Each year, a portion of the earnings are spent according to the donor’s wishes — to award scholarships, for example. The remaining earnings are reinvested so that the fund grows gradually over time. Recognizing the positive impact endowed funds can have on future Knights, my wife, Marybeth, and I decided to establish the Morsberger Family Scholarship Fund for first-generation students. Unexpected events — like those that seem to have struck one after another this year — serve as good reminders of the importance of endowment. When outside forces affect other sources of funding, a university’s endowment continues to provide needed dollars with relative consistency. For example, 2020 saw season ticket revenue for intercollegiate athletics nosedive across the country. Likewise, cash giving to support scholarships and other priority areas is expected to drop significantly this calendar year. And yet endowments — thanks to carefully crafted spending policies — continue to yield virtually the same crucial support for those areas as they did the year before. In fact, many of the endowment funds that are helping students today were established decades ago and continue growing, yielding more funding with each passing year. Although donations intended for immediate use can create greater impact in the short term — as was the case this year, when donors helped many students weather pandemic-related financial crises — nothing can match the impact over time of endowment giving.
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Michael J. Morsberger serves as UCF’s Vice President for Advancement and as Chief Executive Officer of the UCF Foundation, Inc.
Notes of Gratitude
In this space, we feature excerpts from thank-you letters the foundation receives from students and others whose lives have been changed by donors like you. Madison Iferd sent this one after receiving the Brooke Dawkins Memorial Scholarship, named in memory of a UCF student who tragically passed away in 2014.
It is such an honor to have bee n awarded the Brooke Dawkins Memorial Scholarship. I thank all who donated to such a worthy memorial of a Kappa De lta sister who was taken too soon. I want you to know that thi s will help me turn my dreams into reality. It is my dearest ho pe that I represent all that Brooke was and that I make all those who knew her proud.