SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Michael Cunningham, founder, former CEO and president of Cunningham Graphic International, has made a $100,000 commitment to Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department as part of its 60th anniversary fund-raising drive. Cunningham's pledge will be fully funded over three years and will establish the Michael Cunningham Graphic Communication Endowment. "Michael Cunningham has provided a major leadership gift toward our $2.5 million campaign goal," Levenson said. "The endowment will enhance the growth and development of graphic communication education at Cal Poly and will help ensure that the university continues to turn out some of the best-qualified graduates representing the future leadership of the graphic communication and related industries." Cunningham is a recent addition to Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department as a research professor from industry. "Our industry is experiencing a major identity crisis regarding who we are and what business we are in. We have to be forward-thinking and embrace new technologies and various forms of media, while still remaining strong in the more traditional graphic communication disciplines. Only through investing in our industry's future leaders will we be able to effectively meet these challenges head on," Cunningham said. Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department is recognized as one of the premier programs in the nation focused on printing and imaging. The department's fund-raising campaign, established to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2006, has already raised roughly $825,000 in endowments and related cash contributions. "Anyone wishing to enhance the areas of student and faculty development, as well as improve curriculum and laboratory education at Cal Poly, may donate to the endowment," said Harvey Levenson, head of the Graphic Communication Department. Cunningham and the company he founded have received recognition and numerous awards from organizations such as the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the British American Chamber of Commerce, Forbes Magazine, Business Week, New York University, and the Association of Graphic Communications. He is also chairman of the newly formed Center for Graphic Communications at Kean University in New Jersey and is the current chairman of the Center for Graphic Communications, Management and Technology at New York University.