I think his point was more about the reaction, both the lack of in some cases and the seemingly limp ones in others, of the administration more than the protests themselves. While I too find many of the “issues” and even more so the “demands” absurd and completely contrary to free speech within a university setting, freedom to teach without fear of being reprimanded or dismissed for not being able to read minds or anticipate the offending of oh-so-delicate and ever-changing sensibilities, and just generally silly, some protests are genuine, thoughtful, and reflect issues that should have been addressed long ago, both at the universities and in society in general. The administrations, in far too many cases, seem unable or unwilling to differentiate between these, even when obvious. Post #19 by @Corinthian is a fine example. And hardly an isolated anecdote. I have read literally hundreds of similar stories. To the point where it almost qualifies as data (don’t take that too literally).
Good point, but that still leaves a lot of large donations that are not made with those parameters in mind. I was just spit-balling a possible answer for the conundrum of whether a large donation depresses the giving of other, smaller donors. Besides, even in the cases you cite, it could always be presented that way and then the donor decides to give anyway. It’s a little sleazy for sure, but hardly the end of the world if it were to be tried. Unless it is against the law. That would be an issue, and I don’t know the answer to that. I can see where it might be. Not the matching scheme, but the matching scheme never being real. The matching scheme scenario seems to work for charities and Public Radio/TV, albeit those amounts are much smaller.
^^^Common wisdom in the development world (I’m on the board of a non-profit that does a great deal of fundraising) and this is from our development person)–large donations don’t depress the small donations. Similarly, having a capital campaign along with general fundraising doesn’t depress general fundraising.
Also, the non-profit I’m affiliated with will always ask an angel (deep pockets) donor if we can use his/her donation as a match. In fact, many of the angel donors are pretty savvy about giving and suggest that we use the match idea.
A bit off topic. Does anyone know how much of Harvard’s 30+ B endowments are from its graduates and how much are from non-graduates? Undergrads vs grads? Smaller endowments from a smaller school, e.g., Brown, may not indicate Brown’s graduates are less generous or capable.
It’s a pointless question, as at any kind of 10,000 foot level there is no meaningful difference between Harvard and Brown. You already should know that.
These students are not snowflakes. They are smart. They beat the beast with it’s own weapons. The Asian lesbian professor addresses herself as “Asian lesbian”. Common! She doesn’t say that she is “a scholar of 18th century English” or anything like it. She uses her racial and gender identity instead of her name. Students, tired of all this crap, answer in the same way. They don’t want to learn about Shakespeare from her. They want to talk with Asian lesbian about their racial and gender issues. She gets exactly what she had asked for. Go on, kids, you are doing the right thing.
Hm…maybe no difference at the 10,000-foot level, but there is a difference at the 50,000-foot level.
Harvard produces something like 4X the billionaires than Brown and god knows how many more multimillionaires (8 and 9 figures) - that is a lot of money that leads to donations.
Education may be similar at some level, but outcomes are not.
Suggesting that anyone who protests needs to grow up, and/or that anyone who protests does it solely for “status” is not only what is silly, but outright wrong as well. Perhaps you need to grow up? You seem half scared and half bitter and jaded.
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There are some things worth protesting for, and then there are some things that are just flat out ridiculous.
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And modern racial and social issues are definitely some of those things worth protesting. I’m glad young people are taking a stand.
“produces something like 4X the billionaires than Brown and god knows how many more multimillionaires (8 and 9 figures) - that is a lot of money that leads to donations.”
It would be interesting to know how much of that is “produced” versus “was born into.” For example - and not to get political, mostly illustrative - the Trump children appear to be no slouches, but Penn and Georgetown didn’t “produce” their millionaire status - they stepped into their father’s empire. (Not a darn thing wrong with that, btw. If I had a business empire I sure as heck would give my kids opportunities in it.)
What happen (and is happening) at the University of Missouri is very illustrative of how activism (that is perceived to impact the university operations/climate) can impact donations, how super donors can have a huge impact on overall donations, and on how “turmoil on campus” can have an even bigger impact on enrollment (and associated impact on tuition funding).
When comparing Brown and Harvard outcomes – like the “4x as many billionaires at Harvard” comment – we should keep in mind the size difference of the schools. There are a whole lot more Harvard students and grads.
Brown and Harvard have similar numbers of undergraduate students (~6200 for Brown vs. 6700 for Harvard). Where they differ is in graduate enrollment. Harvard has the trifecta of having renowned Business, Law, and Medicine programs (Brown only has medicine), and I suspect that those students also contribute significantly to Harvard’s coffers.
Previous youthful protest tended to focus on external world events or issues. Contemporary protests often go after the universities themselves, their names, the founding principles, etc. The schools might have recruited diversity but what they have (among the protestors) is a near monolith of leftist anarchists with very loud mouths and hair-trigger sensitivities. I have not read a single story of a student protestor renouncing his aid i.e. the largesse of the reviled 1%. But the loud mouths are presumably in the minority so I suppose the the big donors simply round them off to zero.
“Where they differ is in graduate enrollment. Harvard has the trifecta of having renowned Business, Law, and Medicine programs (Brown only has medicine), and I suspect that those students also contribute significantly to Harvard’s coffers.”
So you do think students should protest issues that don’t affect them directly?
This is a sweeping assertion for which you provide no evidence. I don’t think there’s any evidence that the number of “questionable” protests is on the rise, although there may well be some disagreement over which protests are “questionable”.
Wait, so you think the protests should be abridged or suppressed to avoid “intimidating” prospective students? Is this generation such “delicate special snowflakes” that it’s intimidated by a few widdle pwotests?
I see recent protests about divesting in oil/carbon-based energy, protests around Israel/Palestine, and recently a lot about racism and police shootings which has led on a few campuses to looking at the campus itself and the people whose names are on some buildings.
Going back to 1600-whatever’s first known protest, that one was very much about the campus, specifically the quality of its butter.
While I’m sure alumni have always been perplexed by campus protests and have occasionally cut contributions, what makes this round a bit different is that some administrations seem spineless in the face of demands that often seem ridiculous.
Students protesting is a normal state of affairs on most campuses. Administrations making decisions to meet the demand-du-jour is without maintaining a long-term perspective is no doubt more problematic for alumni. The apparent bias in free speech is also getting worse. Bad behavior, like repeatedly interrupting an invited speaker, is going to happen from time to time. Alums can accept that the behavior may occur, but are less tolerant when the university’s administration fails to act in a decisive way to discipline offenders or prevent future occurrences.
Maybe it’s the previously discussed “customer orientation” that is now part of so many schools’ modus operandi. If the customers are demanding something, we’ve got to keep them happy, right?
