At least in UT’s case this was not always true and developed over the last decade or so. We used to get a much much larger percentage of funds from the state, but apparently their return from us is indirect and inobvious and “you can always raise tuition, can’t you? And get donations? Well, then.”
I also worked for the gifts department when I was in school – I processed a lot of the checks we got. You would not believe how much money passed through my hands. I saw checks from individual donors for more than $50,000.
I can somewhat understand it if my college experience was positive. I can’t understand how they have to nerve to ask me when, in the two years I was there:
The main library (where all the materials I needed for research was stored,) closed twice, once when they moved into a new building, the 2nd time when the new building flooded because of rain. It was closed/partially closed about 12 months while I was there.
It took 1 hour to get to class after arriving at the campus because there was no parking and it took 30-60 minutes to get from street parking to the classroom.
They changed the copy cards every term and you had a 3 day window to get your dollar deposit back on the old cards. If you didn’t, the deposit as well as any money put onto the card was lost forever.
The teachers went on strike for a month. We had to go to make up classes on Sundays.
My advisers left because the school was so horrible.
The computer lab had more procedures and security than getting to a safe deposit box, you had a 30-60 minute waiting list, and you were charged for anything you printed.
The sports teams sucked.
Parking cost as much as tuition.
The food cost twice as much.
Two weeks after graduation, all student rights are rescinded and alumni get no benefits.
Seriously, how can they even think about asking me to donate?
I toss my undergrad school a few bucks every year, but I will likely never be able to repay more than a small fraction of the full-tuition grant they gave me.
My grad school, on the other hand - I’m still paying off the student loans, and they didn’t give me one red cent in scholarships. So after they started calling me literally every. single. night for a while, I finally asked them to knock it off.
Statements like this make me wonder why high schools, colleges and universities even bother with the facade of teaching people. It’s obvious they’re only there to be a football team. Sure there’s some that don’t focus entirely on sports but those schools are a distinct minority.
You clearly must have misread what I wrote. Otherwise, I can’t possibly come up with any rationale for you coming to the conclusion you did. It’s frankly insane.
I have never given and never will. To my mind there are very few people less deserving of charity than college students. They have room and board provided for them, get to study interesting subjects, have access to great a library, a huge variety of social opportunities, access to many young people of the opposite sex, no responsibilities, and probably spend most of their time getting drunk or playing ultimate frisbee. As long as there is anyone living in poverty in the world, colleges are a huge waste of charity.
You are correct that the problem has worsened over the past decade, but it goes back much further than that. I don’t have all of their information handy, but I do know that 25 years ago (1984-85 school year), the school’s funding was 5% from tuition and 47% from state support. So you are absolutely correct that the state provided a much larger percentage; however, there was still a significant funding gap. Further, the state until recently was able to prohibit tuition increases, so the school hasn’t just been able to raise tuition to bridge the gap (nor do they want to). Donations have been a big portion of their revenue for a long time now.
I wish that schools would at least wait for me to pay off my student loans before asking me for donations. Or at least wait 10 years for a standard federal loan term to finish…it’s not like most of us would have $50,000 to give back before then anyway, loan or not.
That’s a reasonable view I suppose. Another way to look at it is that without financial assistance, many people will never have the opportunities you describe. I give most of my money to scholarship funds. I assume it helps students stay in school and/or graduate with less debt. My college changed my life, in many ways. I’m grateful, and am happy doing what little I can so others might have a similar experience.
I did spend some time getting drunk, and some time trying to gain access to many young people of the opposite sex, but mostly I worked very hard on some very challenging and interesting courses.
I tend to agree. My husband got a lot of money from his private school, and we may “pay that forward” in our will. But there are so many more needs in this world - and some other places I intend to put money as well. Starting with the need for me to put my OWN kids through college before I worry about anyone else’s.
But yes, endowments and donations are a huge part of a lot of schools budgets. They are what enables most schools to build and repair buildings and offer scholarships. And for a lot of people, they eventually acquire enough to meet their own needs, and credit the ability to acquire that wealth to their college. Makes some sense to give back.
'pends on the system. I paid nada, zilch, nothing for tuition all the way through grad school. As a PhD student I got paid a stipend roughly 70-80% of the starting salary of a privately employed MSc graduate in my field. And that’s the norm where I live.
I wouldn’t, ever, pay a dime in direct support to my alma mater. It’s enough that I support it through my taxes.
But then, I live in (Socialist) Europe
Room and board provided to them, in many cases, from alumni donations. That was certainly the case for me. So I give back to help the students who came after.
And at the technical college I went to, I didn’t have access to many people of the opposite sex. There were far more men than women. But that’s another story.
ETA: One may as well say that as long as there is anyone living in poverty, art museums are a huge waste of charity. I give to museums AND Doctors Without Borders.
My college welcomed me in and bent over backwards to help me financially. Anything I couldn’t come up with would be covered by a check from the Alumni Association, and they played a fairly important role in changing me from someone who coasted through HS into someone who could work really, really hard in the (many) cases where I absolutely could not coast through things. They also exposed me to many opportunities to “try out” various disciplines by getting work-study jobs working for grad students. So, not a store. I guess I subscribe to their description of themselves as a community.
Receiving a significant amount of financial aid has been mentioned a lot and probably plays a big part into my own attitude of not giving anything to my school since I paid for my own college, room and board. Every penny of it. So I just don’t feel like I owe them anything more.
I don’t know what the numbers were back when I was there, but my undergrad college only gets ~50% of its revenue from its current students (or their families). The rest comes from the endowment. And where does the endowment come from? Folks like me. I probably won’t ever pay back the subsidy I received, but I can do a little. Plus, helping my school stay famous helps my pedigree.
I won’t be sending anything to my graduate school, even though my tuition was free and they paid me a stipend. The money they skimmed off the grants I worked on means they profited from my presence.
