The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) formally launched a $550 million capital drive last week, which officials hope will put MIT on even financial footing with other leading U.S. universities.

"In the most basic terms, we need additional endowment funds to preserve the vitality of this institution," said MIT President Paul E. Gray at a press conference kicking off the drive. MIT's endowment, valued at more than $1 billion, lags far behind that of schools like Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford.

Though MIT is describing the campaign as a five-year affair that will last until 1992, the university has actually been raising funds for the drive since 1984, said William J. Hecht, director of MIT's alumni association. In fact, of the $550 million goal, the school has already raised $210 million, he said.

The fund drive's main purpose is to generate capital for the long haul, allowing MIT to continue to attract top scientists, students and research grants. "Our ability to do our best in research and education in the service of society relies on our capacity to stay vibrant and flexible," Gray said.

While MIT has the seventh largest endowment among private U.S. universities, it ranks 19th in endowment per student, and 32nd in per faculty figures, Hecht said.

He also said that the university's reliance on annual gifts for one-quarter of its approximately $200 million teaching budget was too high for comfort, and that new endowment funds could reduce that figure by 40 percent.

The drive is expected to pump $350 million straight into the endowment, said Vice President and Treasurer Glenn P. Streble, who is in charge of the drive.

About $100 million of the $550 million total is slated to endow 100 professorships, raising MIT's number of endowed chairs by more than one-third, Strehle said.

Another $200 million will go towards basic research and new faculty initiatives. Student programs like financial aid and undergraduate research are alotted $120 million, and construction and renovation of facilities are budgeted to receive $65 million. The remaining $65 million is targeted for a general fund and interdisciplinary projects, Strehle said.

A little more than half the money donated so far came from foundations and corporations, Strehle said. Traditionally; he said, 60 percent of MIT's funding has come from such groups.

Over the remaining four-and-a-half years of the campaign, 3000 alumni volunteers will be mobilized to contact at least 70,000 other alumni, Hecht said. He said that these efforts should generate $100 million in grants less than $50,000 each, while specially-targeted individuals and corporations, such as the high-tech groups on Route 128, should yield larger amounts.

In the formal kickoff of the campaign last week, MIT hosted nine faculty symposia and two invitational dinners for 725 guests.