Don’t Write a Blank Check to Your Alma Mater

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | June 8, 2022 | George R. La Noue

[karpov]

When persons of means contemplate death, the question of where to leave their financial assets becomes acute. If they are higher education graduates, their former campuses have “advancement teams” ready to answer questions, provide forms, and urge investments in their institutions. Sometimes they will appeal to altruism, sometimes ideology, and sometimes ego. Would you like to have your name on this activity or building? Such administrators believe that “where there is a Will, there is a way.”

Many endowment gifts have strengthened institutions and brought about profound public benefits, but there are sometimes disappointments and controversy. Savvy donors need to think carefully before entering into endowment agreements, which are difficult to change before death and virtually impossible after death. Several questions need to be answered. First, since money is fungible, will the donor’s gift simply replace a routine institutional expenditure, creating no net gain for the program being supported? Second, is the activity likely to be preserved in the long term as programs, student interest, and curricula constantly change? Third, and most important, will the institutional values once known and cherished endure?

[joma89]

I have never given a penny to my alma mater and never will. I wish I knew then what I know now since I would have never attended.

[outofsalt]

I like it. I like it a lot.

[Getready]

I used to give a nominal amount, but the school has become so woke and stupid they are no longer getting anything extra from me. It is now a playground for “smart” ex high schoolers. Certainly wouldn’t hire any of their grads unless I knew about their history completely.

[Cecily]

I’ve never written any checks to my alma mater and don’t ever plan to do so.

[TBP]

I’m happy and proud to donate to mine, and I wish I could donate more.

[from occupied ga]

I got a phone call from someone who seemed to know all about me and my college friends

Never had that done to me. I've gotten calls from students (obviously drafted to do this). Most of the time I say can't contribute at this time and they go away, but every now and then I get one that wants to persist. I don't remember the exact words, but the conversation went something like this after I told him I wasn't going to donate: Him "Are you sure you can't help? The money goes for scholarships that allow people who otherwise can't afford it to attend?"

Me: "You say it goes for scholarships right?"

Him: "yes"

Me: "well a scholarship would be based on academic performance, but I read that all financial aid at (name of university) was based on need."

Him: "yes that's right"

Me: "Well if financial aid is based on need then it can't be based on academic performance, and if I donate I'll just be subsidizing people who were less careful with their money than my parents."

Him "It's based on both. I wouldn't be here if it werent for financial assistance."

Me "I rest my case" and hung up

[RussRoberts]

I just completed my annual (modest) donation to my undergraduate college. I am comfortable in doing so as it was a pure engineering institution when I attended and it remains a private STEM institution. It has adopted the Chicago Statement on Freedom of Expression and I know of no instances where it has disregarded that statement. Of course, being a STEM institution, it has a student body less inclined to leftwing ideas of intolerance. I do not contribute to my law school, which is connected to a very liberal private college; I have no faith that tolerance to competing ideas will be shown.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Any conservative that donates anything to any college or university (except perhaps Hillsdale and a few others) is paying his executioner to buy a better axe.

Universities are the head of the communist snake. They need to be starved to death.