A year after its creation, the fundraising for the NYU Momentum campaign, an initiative that raises funds for scholarships, is ahead of schedule, exceeding last year’s campaign goal by $5 million.

The Momentum campaign, created by NYU President John Sexton and Debra LaMorte, senior vice president of university development and alumni relations, aims to raise $1 billion by 2017. During the last fiscal year, it raised $142.7 million, which LaMorte said is promising.

“The Momentum campaign is going well,” LaMorte said. “Currently $381 million has been raised against the overall goal of $1 billion.”

The Finish Line Grant, started in spring of 2014, and the Global Pathways Scholarship, started in fall of 2014, are the first scholarships given as part of the campaign, which reaches out to parents and alumni for pledges. The university has not announced any new scholarships this semester.

LaMorte said the campaign expects to meet its goal by the end of NYU’s 2017 fiscal year.

LaMorte added, however, that more needs to be done on the donor side of the campaign before the university could successfully reach its fundraising goal.

“In order to meet this goal, NYU needs to have several donors step up with transformational gifts at the $50 million or $100 million levels,” LaMorte said. “I can assure you that President Sexton, the Trustees, Deans and our Development staff has these gifts as their top priority.”

CAS junior Sharon Choi said while she was not aware of the Momentum campaign,  students need fundraising initiatives to keep tuition manageable.

“I’ve never heard of the Momentum campaign specifically, but I think it’s great that NYU has fundraising campaigns set in motion especially given the cost of tuition here,” Choi said. “I think it’s definitely vital to have campaigns like Momentum put into place because so many students depend on financial scholarships to afford going to college.”

Choi said financial scholarship opportunities might help students focus on academics rather than their financial situation.

“The cost of going to NYU seems to increase every year,” Choi said. “It’s pretty difficult to worry about your grades when you’re not sure if you’re going to be able to afford tuition the next semester.”

Former NYU student Lucy Parks, who left the school for financial reasons, said though she thinks the campaign can help students to pay for college, more has to be done to combat student debt. 

“Student debt is a national issue with origins and solutions far more broad-reaching than NYU financial aid,” Parks said. “No one is going to complain about more financial aid, but Momentum isn’t nearly the end of it, and it remains to be seen exactly how much it will help.”

A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Nov. 13 print edition. Email Suebin Kim at [email protected].