World, Public Colleges Begin to Shift Focus to Undergraduates as Donors

[Judi Lynn]

World, Public Colleges Begin to Shift Focus to Undergraduates as Donors

1 Hour,53 minutes Ago

: TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Leon Harris pays for his education at the University of Alabama on his own. He's drowning in student loans, he's between jobs and his dorm room just got more expensive.

Yet on a recent afternoon, during a break at the student center, the sophomore sat facing a banner that asked him to donate money to a new student capital campaign. The university wants each of its 21,000 students to give at least $2 toward a scholarship for someone who will be the first in his family to go to college.

"I don't have any money to give," said Harris, who's from Montgomery. "I give them a lot of money already."

Public universities traditionally have not solicited their undergraduates for donations - Alabama hasn't asked since 1922. But faced with state budget cuts and the need to remain competitive, schools across the country are beginning to focus on students as young as freshmen and sophomores as prime targets for fund-raising campaigns.
(snip/...)

http://www.keralanext.com/news/indexread.asp?id=107481

[bluestateguy]

1. There's really a very simple way to do this

Target the students from wealthy families who are not on financial aid. Surely their computers can come up with a list of students who are from families with higher incomes and are not on financial aid. All asking struggling students for money will do is alienate them and make them angry.

[Maddy McCall]

3. I think it's all some grand scheme...

If the state quits funding scholarships for poor but exceptional students, the rich kids have less competition in the job market once they graduate.

Keep the poor poor and the rich rich. If poor kids get degrees, who's going to mop the floors, pick up the garbage, and dig the ditches?

[Branjor]

8. Utopian solution (?)

<who's going to mop the floors, pick up the garbage, and dig the ditches?

Everyone. Everyone will get to learn and do creative and fulfilling work of their choice and the s*** work will be done in short term rotating shifts of one or two weeks in which everyone will be required to participate before going back to what they like to do.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. You're absolutely right.

It's time to recognize the accomplishments of those students who make it on their own. Personally, I came from a set of parents who forfeited our childhood in order to set aside enough money to put us through college so I didn't have money problems in college, but I have also encountered many white kids whose parents had the money but refused to put them through school. Because their parents were selfish pricks, their children became intolerant to anyone who got a helping hand. I think their accomplishments should be recognized, and that the school should be more careful with who they ask for donations.

[Maddy McCall]

2. Un-fucking-believable.

Talk about alienating future alumni donors.

I've seen desperate measures in Mississippi, but nothing like that.

[JVS]

5. Why not just take it out of the overpriced meal plan fund?

[ixion]

6. you know who gets most of the money the college allocates for salaries?

Administration.

I'm sure they could come up with several such scholarships if the administrators would take a modest cut in pay.

I was always amazed in college at the difference between the offices of the administrators, who did nothing, and the offices of everyone else. The difference is remarkable, and undeniable.

[BiggJawn]

7. How true.

At my school, it almost seems that the more incompetent you are, the more they pay you.

And hardly a week goes by that the Admin is not hitting me up to give back some of my $16 an hour to SOME "worthy project"...
Why don't they go after the guys who make $10,000-$40,000 a MONTH and leave us wage-slaves alone?

[HuckleB]

9. Sheesh.

Oh what a pitiful people we have become.

:(