The end of college is remarkable for many reasons. Here, celebrating the completion of Independent Study., walking the opposite way through the arch and giving a silly gift to President Cornwell are celebrated events that seniors look forward to. It is easy to forget sometimes† that not everyone had the same experience at college, especially during this time of celebration. However, bullying and torment is on the rise with students even going as far as publicly humiliating students who refuse to give to their senior gift.
This past week, students at both Dartmouth College and Cornell University were chided for abstaining from giving to their senior class gift. At Dartmouth, members of the senior gift committee turned to their school newspaper and wrote a harsh editorial after one single member of the graduating class failed to donate the one dollar requested of each senior, according to reports from the Huffington Post. The goal for this senior class was to each donate at least one dollar, which in return ensured the donation of $100,000 from the class of 1960. Although the editorial did not release the name of the student, it allegedly made apparent references to who she might be. The author of the article admonished the student by saying that she had “symbolically shown the Class of 2014 that [she did not] consider their chance at happiness valuable.”
The next day, an anonymous student revealed the name of the student, Laura DeLorenzo, on the school wide campus blog causing uproar on campus. In response, DeLorenzo sent out an e-mail that was later posted on the blog. She wrote that her decision not to donate was personal and had nothing to do with sabotaging the future of the campus, but simply “that the negative aspects of Dartmouth outweigh the positive, and nothing more.”
At Cornell, a graduate who is now in medical school told the New York Times that she was targeted by her sorority sisters multiple times per week, publically calling her out in emails saying they knew she hadn’t donated. “I understand the theory behind the Cornell campaign is they want their seniors to donate, but pushing this hard makes it seem like it’s no longer really a donation but more like part of tuition,” she said.
Are these tactics the norm on college campuses? And if so, should we agree with them? Students have become more aggressive in their tactics, there is no doubt about that. However, there are more considerate ways to go about this. Robert F. Sharpe Jr., a fund-raising consultant, said that publishing a list of donors in a school publication shows people who didn’t donate, which in turn has encouraged people to donate, as reported in the New York Times. This tactic, he says, “serves the same purpose.”
At Wooster, giving to the senior fund is a tradition that many soon to be graduates participate in. Assistant Director of the Wooster Fund Carolyn Ciriegio, who is also a 2008 graduate of the College, reported that unlike Dartmouth and Cornell, senior class giving is not only amicable amongst most students, but also on the rise. Ciriegio reported that “in 2009 the first senior class gift campaign was started and reached 25 percent participation.
Last year, the class of 2010 had 43 percent participation and raised $1,700.” Although these donation percentages may not seem too high, given the recent start of this initiative, the jump between the two years is quite commendable. In comparison, Denison University has an 85 percent senior participation rate, a goal which Ciriegio thinks is certainly possibly in the future. She continued by saying that the senior gift to the Wooster Fund “really isn’t about dollars raised, [but] more about educating students about giving back as alumni so we ask seniors to make a gift they can afford.”
The minimum donation that a Wooster student can give is $5, but the typical amount that is suggested is based off the year of graduation. For example, this year it will most likely be $20.11 or $11 dollars in order to symbolize 2011.
Are badgering techniques necessary to get student participation? In Wooster’s case, probably not. However, this is a time period in which many students feel the economic pressures of post-graduation bearing down. There are ways in which students can feel secure with donating, which is why in February the senior gift campaign will kickoff with the message of education, not demand. As Ciriegio said “our main goal is to get the message of ëwhy’ not ëhow much.'”