In the midst of job application and interview season, there is one group on Grounds this week that is more interested in talking to fourth years about giving rather than getting money.
All this week, the fourth-year class trustees are working the Lawn and calling classmates as part of the fall class giving campaign effort. This year, one focus of the fundraising effort has aimed to educate fourth years on how class giving can increase the worth of a degree from the University in the years to come.
"The reason why we're out here now advertising is because we don't want to take any fourth years off guard, we want to make them aware now all the benefits of class giving," Fourth-Year Class President Kemper Steele said.
The annual class giving campaign is a donation drive run by the class trustees that replaced the concept of giving a single class gift, such as a scholarship or plaque, to the University at graduation. Class giving allows fourth years to donate any amount of money, over $5, to the University and allows students to designate exactly which school, program, club or organization will receive that money. Each year, the class giving campaign aims to get 100 percent of the fourth-year class to give some amount of money. Forty-four percent of the Class of 2002 participated in class giving. Comparably, William & Mary boasts a 66 percent senior giving rate and Harvard has close to a 50 percent giving rate.
According to University figures, the University's academic budget for the 2002
2003 school year is $835.9 million. Tuition and fees paid by students make up 24.4 percent of that amount, state funding 16.9 percent, and donations and gifts given to the University make up 58.7 percent of the budget.
According to Trustee Class Giving Committee Chairwoman Kerri Teagno, the percentage of fourth-year students who participate is more important than the amount of money raised in the campaign. "One goal of the campaign is to get fourth years in the spirit of giving back to the University while they are still students," Teagno said.
Annual giving, measured by the percentage of alumni participating, serves as an indicator of alumni satisfaction and is one of the factors considered by U.S. News & World Report in its yearly rankings of colleges and universities.
"A lot of people think that the school is run on the money we pay for tuition, but there are a lot of things that tuition doesn't cover," Steele said."Five and ten dollar donations can really build up over time and it lets students know that their money will be going to something they found special at the University."
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