From Joe Giamo ’11:
Wesleyan is participating in “Giving Tuesday” this year, which is a day for everyone to give back to their world, in dollars, service and time. Hundreds of organizations, including Wesleyan, have partnered with 92Y and are asking alumni to support our cause.
We are asking GOLD alumni and seniors (as part of SWAG) to give to whatever drives you on campus so that we create a first class education that supports teachers, research opportunities, technology in classrooms and computer labs, and student resources like the Writing and Math Workshop.
Thank you for your kind and loyal support! Give to Wesleyan on Tuesday, December 3 with a gift through the annual fund:
give.wesleyan.edu.
(Visited 2 times, 1 visits today)
The author of the above, as well as the University Relations department and others, appeal to the love we feel and the gratitude we hold for Wesleyan when they make their appeal. They tell us that the best thing we can do to express this love and gratitude, and to make Wesleyan the best University it can be for decades to come — is to donate to the annual fund.
I’d like to challenge this assertion, or assumption.
I would like to second a group of students who wrote in the the Argus this past week (http://wesleyanargus.com/2013/11/21/what-we-can-do/) by emphasizing that every year we, the donor base of the University, actively show our approval and disapproval of Wesleyan’s institutional priorities when we choose either to donate or to refuse to donate to the annual fund.
Wesleyan has chosen to launch a big capital campaign the year after it took unprecedented steps to discriminate against poor people and people of color in its admissions process by ending its “Need-Blind” admissions policy, and replacing it with a need-discriminatory one.
This year’s freshman class, the first admitted under the new discriminatory admissions policy, contains 6% fewer students receiving grant aid, 4% fewer first generation college students, and 3% fewer black students than the previous year’s class. (citation:http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/visiting_campus/2017profile.pdf)
At the same time Wesleyan has taken no steps and made no plans to limit the portion of the budget spent on salaries for a bloated administrative class.
Given all this, and given the love I hold for Wesleyan and my gratitude for all it gave me, I cannot in good conscience donate to the annual fund this year, knowing as I do that this donation would constitute no more than a vote of support for this recent, and I believe profoundly misguided, turn in the University’s priorities.
I would like to encourage my fellow alums, seniors, parents, and others in the extended Wesleyan family that this year we can do more to make Wesleyan the best it can be by vocally refusing to donate to the annual fund, than by donating.
I would like to encourage the Board of Trustees and UR to try asking us to donate again when they are ready to commit to a set of ethical priorities for the University that inspire us and that make us believe once again that Wesleyan is a cause worth supporting.
How can Wesleyan possibly believe that it’s in the long-term interest of its reputation or its endowment to discriminate against its most qualified applicants if their parents’ finances aren’t up to snuff?
How many Majora Carters, Daniel Handlers, David Brancaccios, Wells Towers, Shari Bermans–alums who have a significant impact on American culture, who inspire alumnae to donate, and families to send their kids here–are we directing to Brown, or (god forbid) Williams, because of this short-sighted, fear-driven new admissions policy?…
the reason that some schools are able to maintain their need-blind status is because they have a more involved alumni network of givers. that, and they dont waste money on energy inefficient non-dorm housing (such as woodframe houses, program houses, and lowrises).
unfortunately, need blind policies costs money. if we want to have enough money to bring need blind back, we need to either
*sell all of the program houses, woodframe houses, and lowrises, and stop spending money on extraneous stuff like spring fling, and accept the fact that wesleyan might not be as weird anymore
OR
*cut even more benefits from the university faculty and staff
OR
(gasp) we could try to encourage alumni to participate more heavily in funding our school!
i agree that its bad to invest in unethical institutions, but by giving back, we aren’t investing in a bad institution, we are investing in the less wealthy, more qualified students who have the potential to make wesleyan a better place. as people who have benefitted from our wesleyan educations, we have a duty to give back and make sure that future students are allowed the same opportunities.