"I want to get them stepping up and showing the Legislature that this college deserves to become a university," he said.

Fulton is a fast-talking, high-energy 75-year-old who has donated an estimated $265 million — about 60 percent of his net worth — mostly to educational institutions such as Arizona State University, Brigham Young University and the University of Utah.

On Thursday, he wrote a $512,000 check to UVSC to match contributions made by faculty, students and alumni.

Fulton said raising $10 million is possible. He's raised more at other schools and is considering leading a campaign to raise $1 billion for ASU over the next decade.

Fulton said he will strategize with UVSC administrators.

"How will I do it? I haven't decided yet, " he said. "The thing is, I'll probably put more money than anybody else."

Fulton will probably also talk to acquaintances. He says fund-raising requires talking with people.

"I sort of twist people's arms," he said. "I always ask how much they love people, 'That check you're writing doesn't show you love them very much."'

When colleges raise $1 billion, "you're looking at 50,000 or 60,000 people involved in that," he said. "You may have 1,000 who are core people, who give a million plus."

Fulton prefers giving money for scholarships and to administrators' discretionary-fund accounts than to pay for brick-and-mortar buildings because he feels it affects students more directly.

In the past seven years that he has been giving away his fortune, Fulton said he hasn't met a school that didn't deserve the money.

"My whole feeling is I want colleges to graduate the best possible so they can be good leaders, good engineers, good teachers, good historians," he said.

UVSC's cash donations are much smaller than other schools Fulton works with. UVSC raises between $2.5 million and $3.5 million a year, Hale said.

Fulton's fund-raising expertise will be needed at UVSC, Hale said.

"We're just novices," Hale said. "We're just newbies in the fund-raising business."

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com