Alumni Giving Tied to Size of Loan! Duh.

Oh my goodness. Is it really news that students who leave colleges with massive debt don't appreciate the fundraisers coming after them from said colleges, especially while they are still paying tuition to said schools? To whom is this news? Certainly not to any one I know. Not to a single parent who is sweating out FAFSA applications. Not to my cousin who was in graduate school and staring down so much debt and so terrified of it that she took a leave. Not to the communications director who is trying to persuade—yet again—the fundraising VP from making every communication with the alumni a pitch. PEOPLE!

Colleges are expensive: they are expensive to run and they are expensive to attend. But I can assure you that most of the people who are paying to attend think they are paying as much as they possibly can. It cannot possibly be news that there is a problem ahead for the fundraisers who will be looking to alumni to meet school goals. Students go to school as a means to an end. Indeed, the experience is mostly marketed as a means to an end. The article on the front page of the Globe, headlined— Colleges fear debt puts damper on donations— gets right that giving has not been an integral part of the academic experience. Trying to make it so at a time when the financial pressures are so weighty is nothing if not bad timing.

I am not saying that the average college graduate can't contribute $20 a year to UYou. But the kids think it unseemly for the schools to ask. The family feel extremely put upon. The fundraising staff are under seige to bring in their quotas. The communications staff are trying to streamline the mailings so that families don't get four solicitations and a tuition bill all at the same time. And colleges are busy alienating wealthy alumni who apply for jobs by sending them rejection letters saying they aren't a good fit (see my earlier blog). PEOPLE!

If this isn't the time or place to talk to about better efficiencies or if this isn't th time or place to talk about the problem of escalating costs or if this isn't the time or place to talk about private colleges becoming solely for the rich or the poor then perhaps it is the time and place to say that instituitons should not be depending on the Boston Globe to let them know what the students are thinking and feeling about fundraising. It makes it seem that school administrators are completely out of touch. It perpetuates the notion of an ivory tower and not in a good way.

The Globe reports that administrators at smaller, less competitive schools are at a disadvantage and are worried about this trend. They fear the Princetons and Harvards will have an advantage. PEOPLE! Princeton and Harvard DO have an advantage, always have, always will. Harvard has an endowmenet of $33 BILLION. It still charges tuition and stills racks in big bucks in fundraising because it is one of the few instituitons that has built fundraising into its student culture. Also, it has a little brand equity so its graduates tend to do fairly well. But that doesn't mean that Harvard's behavior isn't unseemly when it solicits $20 bucks from the family that forgoes vacations so that Junior can hunker down in Cambridge for four years.

Colleges fear that debts puts a damper on donations? This is a no brainer. I'm saddened to hear it is news. I suspect it is not news to many administrators. I wished someone would listen to them.