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June 4, 2005
Reunion Fundraising - a Kodak moment
I'm just back from the Reunion weekend picnic on the Quad. Two days of hearing from alumnae/i about how wonderful these Colleges are has been just the kind of boost I need to get over some recent disenchantment with what we do in the American "higher" education.* They love us - they really, really love us! Two of the 10 reunion classes (the 30th and the 50th) raised over $700,000 apiece for their class gift; the 5th year classes (the only one I taught -- Hobart and William Smith classes of 2000) got more than 25% participation and raised something like $5,000; that's pretty good for 26 year olds. When I thought about the fact that the 30th reunion folks - the classes of 1975 - are busy paying tuition or helpting to pay off loans that $700,000 made me very grateful
Disclaimer: yes, I tear up at Kodak commericals and the ends of Julia Roberts movies. I won't watch The Yearling again, despite the fact that since I watched it the first time I found out that Claude Jarman was in my parents' class at Vanderbilt.
*and I've never had strict grading policies so positively reinforced! One and all the table I ate supper with last night praised the hard-grading-with-clearly-stated-standards approach as having taught them something lastingly valuable.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at June 4, 2005 1:34 PM