<p>According to today's Chronicle of Higher Education, students at both Dartmouth and Cornell who did not donate to the senior-gift fundraising drive were outed to classmates. See</p>
<p>While these incidents really shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as the far more heinous episode at Rutgers--where the publicizing of a student's sexual encounter led to his suicide--I do feel that both situations share one common theme ... the violation of privacy. </p>
<p>The schools and colleges with which I am affiliated routinely publish their lists of donors. I feel that this is a legitimate practice, and those who care to do so can then infer that those not listed did not give. However, there is no spotlight trained on those who made that choice.</p>
<p>To single out--and even harass--college seniors who, for whatever reasons, did not participate in fundraising efforts strikes me as yet another example of the fact that we are not teaching our children the right lessons about respecting individual choices ... and privacy.</p>
<p>That’s sick though. I will bet you any money that most of the people who didn’t give were low income kids who just don’t have disposable income. Even if they get school paid for, there are other expenses. I am so glad I didn’t go to either of those. I would probably be one of those who couldn’t give a gift. </p>
<p>Furthermore, I would be so angry at the school that I doubt I’d give money even when I did have it available.</p>
<p>Sorry about that. It didn’t seem to be one of those that required my log-in info to read. Sometimes The Chronicle confuses me that way. It’s a long article so I won’t reprint it all, but here are a couple excerpts:</p>
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<p>If you are interested in seeing the whole story, send me a PM with an email address and I’ll forward it.</p>
<p>I find this insulting, particularly if someone’s parents had to pay full freight to go such a school. If anything, only the scholarship kids should be asked to donate something. The rest can just pledge. Is the school forcing this, or are overzealous student volunteers to blame?</p>
<p>I will definitely not be donating to Cornell nor Dartmouth. Shame really, I had always liked Dartmouth and had considered donating a small sum to the school.</p>
<p>This is worse than the calls to homes of alumnae to “verify your address and contact information” and ask for money. These calls are repeated. If you have caller ID and don’t answer, they just keep calling. And the students who call are getting tougher about the way they approach the word no. They even ask for more if you volunteer a meager amount. No wonder, they are exposed to this themselves on campus.</p>
<p>A lot of universities do precisely what you have mentioned. My residence receives these sort of phone calls during the beginning of each school year. My parents kindly say no.</p>
<p>I will donate. As soon as I get my degree, I will. </p>
What the hell kind of logic is this? People who receive scholarships in the first place often do because they can’t afford the school. I attend an expensive school on a scholarship. State school was out of the question since they couldn’t give me the type of aid my private college did. My scholarship is merit-based, but all scholarships given by the school are need based to a certain extent.</p>
<p>To be blunt, I’m poor. I live on a tight budget and carefully micromanage every last dollar I spend. Last month my paycheck was really late because of a paperwork problem and I had to borrow money from my grandma so I could have food that month. My scholarship is the only reason I was able to attend college at all. I sure don’t have any money to donate next year when I’m a Senior, and I would feel horrible if that was publicly announced in the school paper or whatever. </p>
<p>This is an invasion of privacy and those students were being really rude. What was the point of making it public, simply to make other people feel bad for not having rich parents who can donate? Like low-income students at elite private schools aren’t already aware they’re not rich kids.</p>
<p>Don’t bother spring… people that see you and me on scholarships cause we’re poor think that we now have a ton of disposable income. I’ve been fighting this fight for years… it’s a losing battle lol.</p>
<p>@romanigypsy: Really?! how typically college confidential. Some people actually have to pay their own rent, electric bill, phone bill, water bill, groceries, clothing, books, etc…and those people also generally don’t have cash to spare for donations to a college they can’t afford to begin with.</p>
<p>I worked hard in high school, high gpa, 2280, etc…and I turned down schools like Dartmouth (don’t regret it now lol), Duke and JHU for a scholarship to a less prestigious (but still good) private school. And after I graduate I will hopefully get a good job and be able to donate some money to the school. But I won’t be able to next year when I’m a Senior and I can’t help that. </p>
<p>@XX55XX: Sorry if I’m mixing you up with another poster, but I think you’ve mentioned a few times you live at home with your parents and go to BC. Must be nice to have parents like that, but not everyone does so please don’t be judgmental.</p>
<p>It’s judgmental because you assumed (made a judgement) that kids who are there on scholarship because they’re poor should pay. That is quite judgmental. You don’t know what kind of background ANY of them come from so to make a statement such as “If anything, only the scholarship kids should be asked to donate something.” you are judging that these kids have disposable income TO pay. </p>
<p>there’s more of a backstory here. The class was to receive a significant multiple-matching contribution from an alumni group if they achieved 100% participation in the senior class gift. Numerous volunteers spent a tremendous part of their final term soliciting their peers. This one student would have only needed to contribute $1 to reach the 100% participation goal, but still refused for reasons never made clear. In a small, close community like D’s, you can not expect that sort of behavior to go unobserved.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what the reason was- you should NEVER print a story bashing a student and publish her name and picture and then top it all off by harassing her with phone calls simply because she can’t (or won’t) donate. </p>
How do you know this? It wasn’t in the article. Maybe you’re a student at Dartmouth? </p>
<p>If it was only $1 I can understand people being upset. I assumed the contribution would be a lot bigger than that. </p>
<p>Still, to print her picture and name in the school paper was uncalled for, I think. If they were really so desperate, why couldn’t someone just donate a dollar in her name? I really doubt it came down to something as extreme as 1 person didn’t donate a dollar so the whole school lost out on alumni donations. That doesn’t sound logical or reasonable.</p>
<p>Well, I believe I should explain my comment earlier:</p>
<p>What I was trying to say is that it’s quite insulting for any university to ask a student (especially those leaving as seniors and preparing to pay back all the loans they had taken out) to donate to the school. The school should target those whose liabilities are small as potential donors.</p>