Ah, the serious issues of college students in the past. I wonder if the alumni from the 1730s were all “these spoiled kids today! II’m not writing checks for butter!”.
That assumes these snowflakes become functional enough to succeed in the real world.
I’ve increased my giving in response to my alma mater’s improved policies on social issues.
The only real hard data in the piece is this:
and it doesn’t seem particularly noteworthy. In particular, there’s no way for readers to judge it without similar data on other years. For example, in early August of 2014, 2008, 2002, what percent of these schools were behind their previous year’s dollars/donors numbers?
The article leans heavily on anecdata, otherwise.
I’m also curious what happened to alumni donations when, for example, top colleges went co-ed and when they began accepting African-American students. I’m guessing they plummeted in the short term. I know that’s the case when, for example, my alma mater got rid of fraternities back in the 1960s, but in the long run that was just a blip on the radar.
^ I’m half serious when I say that protesting against stinky butter is more worthwhile than the protests we see today.
Yeah, I can see it now…
“Excuse me, Mr Kim Jong Un, we are in our safe space here! You are not allowed to talk to us without the proper trigger warnings.”
The only thing more annoying than young social justice warriors is older people who mock young people for being social justice warriors. 
Make room on that spectrum for (older/younger) people who mock older people who mock young people for being social justice warriors. And the people who mock them. [Turtles all the way down](Turtles all the way down - Wikipedia).
“At the same time, it seems like if a school is lucky enough to get such a super-donation, that donor should borrow a page from other fund-raising campaigns and make it contingent on matching contributions (in sum, obviously) from the hoi polloi.”
We are doing some financial planning right now and part of it has to do with how to get money out of our estate to avoid estate taxes down the road. So we are identifying charities we would ultimately like to give to, and setting up the appropriate vehicles. I would imagine people who are donating at high levels are also doing so because once they max out the tax-free estate allowance, they’d rather their remaining $ go to charity than Uncle Sam. As such, it would make no sense for them to make a donation contingent upon other people matching it. They want that money out of their hands.
Likewise, if they have established a family foundation, the foundation has to distribute 6% per year or face consequences - so again, they need to guarantee the $ is disbursed, not rely on others matching it.
The HUMUNGOUS difference between protesters back then and protesters now is that protesters now don’t recognize the intellectual principal of allowing dissenting opinions to be heard.
“The HUMUNGOUS difference between protesters back then and protesters now is that protesters now don’t recognize the intellectual principal of allowing dissenting opinions to be heard.”
That wasn’t my experience back in the 70s. Then (as now) each side tried to drown out the other.
Drowning out the dissenting view is not the same thing as gagging it.
Even back then, some protesters were protesting to try to get university administrations to impose bans on “fighting words” (as defined by the protesters). So nothing new these days.
When I worked WS back in college, one of my jobs was to call alumni and solicit donations. Back then we were looking for $25 - $100. There were special calls made to high profile donors. That wasn’t me. But I called all sorts of people and their spouses. Kept track of who died, etc. Most of the time people said yes. I could more times than not increase their previous pledge. (I was a rock star!) Lots of times I heard no. Some gave reasons (not employed, when you give me my diploma - I’ll give you money). Others simply said no with no explanation. I wasn’t to ask. Nothing was offered. Over the years, I have donated. And I have declined. (I did get my diploma, thank you). Some years I am not happy with something. I don’t tell the young man or woman why. Not really anything they can do or should do. I was respectful. Most people were respectful to me. But every once in a while, I’d get an earful from someone who was unhappy about something. I took notes. Wished them well and moved on. I don’t know if any one from the alumni office ever looked at them. I wonder if I were were there now if my notes would be read. I don’t know if they’d make a difference. Change through the alumni office donations comes slowly. It’d have to be a big donor who’d decline for it to have an impact. At least that’s my perception.
As expected, this thread is becoming a proxy fight about “kids these days” and social justice/status quo warriors.
I’d give more to my undergrad if they actually bothered to listen to protestors.
Though I’m sure they don’t much care about my $50 gift every few months. I mostly do it because I have a hard time saying no.
I refuse to give to my current school unless they do a lot more for poor and undeserved students. But I cost them somewhere in the ballpark of 75k per year…
They care. “Average alumni giving rate” comprises 5% of USNWR’s ranking criteria.
^^^$$$>>>> USNWR’s ranking
When Alumni donations are down, the last thing the college is worried about is rankings…
Keep in mind that it’s only a small select group of colleges that have huge endowments. Very few of which are public universities.
I don’t think I’ve ever regretted a missing letter more… that of course should say underserved.
ETA: One of my true joys as a historian (especially as someone who studies the one of the darkest periods of US history) is finding headlines from 100 years ago that look like they could be pulled out of the news today.
One of my top 3 (and relevant to this thread) is: “Junior Prom Bid Shortage Causes Near-Riot at U.C.: Students Protest When They Are Unable to Get Tickets to Annual Affair.”
November 3, 1921. Hundreds of students protested.
I only bring this up because we have this weird, picturesque version of the past in our heads that never really existed.
@PrimeMeridian I don’t think you’ve been paying attention, or you want to paint all of last fall’s protests with a brush that possibly, maybe, fits one or two of them.