College Dean Meredith Woo announced that she will donate her own money for every fourth-year student who contributes to the class of 2010 Giving Campaign to help the College.\nThrough her "Make the Dean Pay" initiative, Woo promises to donate a dollar to the campaign for each fourth-year student who contributes $20.10 or more to the fundraising campaign. Woo also promises to donate an additional $2,010 if at least 2,010 students make contributions.
"I wanted to put my money where my mouth is. Getting people into the habit of giving is so important to me and to the strength of the College that I'm willing to put my personal funds behind an effort to get more fourth years to support the College," Woo said in a statement.
Through her efforts, Woo also hopes to increase the number of donors to the campaign in comparison to participation rates for the past two years.
The participation rate for the last two years was about 10 percent while the amount of funds raised was about $20,000, Woo said.
"That's a tiny but valuable part of the more than $8.5 million we raised from all donors to the College's Annual Fund last year," she added.
The campaign for giving back to the College takes place every year and urges fourth-year students to make financial contributions. So far, 40 percent of the fourth-year student body has contributed money to the campaign for a total of $50,000, Campaign Co-Chair Matt Schrimper said.
"For us, the most important thing without a doubt is the overall participation of our class and not so much how much people are giving back," Schrimper said.
Two misconceptions stop students from giving back to the University, Schrimper said. Often students think that they have to contribute large amounts of money, he said. "Students can give back virtually anything."
Students also do not realize that only 7 percent of University funding comes from the state, which makes private donations financially important to the University, Schrimper said.
Without private funding "the University would not be nearly as competitive," he said. "It would not attract the caliber students it attracts; it would not be the University that we know today at all"
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