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Having worked for a Community College I wouldnt donate a single red cent. They (and Uni's) get plenty from the Feds and arent good stewards of it in the slightest. Admin's make 3x professor salary, when all they do is sit in meetings all day and travel to Hawaii for "training." No Im not making that up. Just look at FSCJ and Wallace. He got CAUGHT. They rest of the cronies just hide it well.
thatguy, wow you have given me something to think about. I do give to my alma maters -- but I do NOT want to give to anyplace - school or charity -- that IMO "WASTES" the money. MAYBE, it will help if we designate the purpose of the donation -- scholarships or specific programs or projects. Maybe.
Yea I prefer to check on an organizations stewardship of the funds before I give. It boils my blood to see reports on major charities that detail how much (or little) of your donation actually goes towards the cause at hand. The rest going towards bloated overhead.
I went to a Big 10 school for undergrad and a very well known Midwestern Catholic school for grad.
Neither of them 'need' my money but I'm happy to support them with what I do contribute financially.
I typically give to the athletic depts. since the school endowments tend to be in the billions (with a B) anyway.
My university didn't give me a dime while I paid thousands. Why should I give them anything back? The whole time I was there they were building new dorms that priced many students out and multi-million dollar athletic facilities while academic buildings were garbage.
You might have paid a lot of money to attend, but you didn't pay even close to the benefits you received. Universities cannot run on tuition dollars alone - even if every single person paid full tuition. In fact, only about a quarter of the operating budget comes from tuition and state support. See: University of Michigan Funding: A Snapshot In UMich's case, a ton of money comes from their athletics. At most schools, athletics programs actually cost the university more than they benefit (especially true of smaller schools). I don't have a handy graph for my alma mater, but I can tell you that gifts make up a much larger piece of the pie.
I went to a top tier private school on a full tuition scholarship (the only way I would have gone to any college - just happy I was able to swing it at one so reputable!) and feel obligated to pay that forward. I can't afford to give much, but I do give a little every month so I don't feel it and give back by volunteering (college career centers are always looking for mentors for students to talk about office culture, go over resumes, practice interviews, talk about career paths, etc), speaking at student events, and giving admissions interviews. One day, I hope to be able to contribute more financially.
In addition to having pride and being grateful for my school, giving impacts participation points. It's typically not the SIZE of the donation that rankings use, but the participation level from alumni giving. Say what you want about things like US News and World Report, but many prospective students DO use those numbers.
More importantly, many grant-offering organizations (foundations, companies, etc) look at alumni giving participation rates to determine if they will give a grant to the university for research or other programs. If the alumni base won't invest in their alma mater, why should an outside organization?
Of course it's all a personal choice. But be honest about not giving - and saying that you already paid (when in fact, you effectively got a "hidden scholarship" in the form of prior alumni and friends' donations) isn't the entire story. Just say you don't want to give and let that be the end of it.
If a 'professor' stands in a room in front of 50 people for 3hrs per lecture, 2 days per week over 15 weeks, with each person paying $1,000 for the privilege - he's working 90 hours (lets call it 120 with a 2hr allowance for 'prep' time each week included) to earn the 'business' $50,000. Let's not forget that concurrently, he has pulled in a $30,000 grant to research some obscure thing that will benefit no-one but the research profile of his workplace. Essentially, a 3rd party grant is paying his salary for a portion of the year. The inefficient way that the $50,000 in fees is totally chewed up in 'the system' is a joke.
I laugh at the assertion that small college sports programs lose money - your university educated opinion is to do as Detroit did and help fund these inefficient practices... went well, right?
I'm totally honest about not giving because I DID already pay. If what I paid wasn't enough to cover the costs of educating me, they should have raised their fees and not been so stupid as to offer a product at a loss.
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