ODU’s Office of Development is challenging ODU seniors to begin their careers as alumni donors before they graduate.
The Dominion fund has unveiled its “Senior Class Challenge:” for each senior to donate $20.10 to the university in commemoration of his or her 2010 graduation year. The fund is challenging students to raise $5,081 for seniors’ May 8, 2010 graduation date. As of Feb. 22, the Senior Class Challenge raised $245.60. “Basically, we’re just challenging each senior as an individual to donate back to the university,” said Trinity Massey, assistant director of Annual Giving for the Dominion Fund through the Office of Development. The Office of Development works to secure private financial support, or donations, for the university. These donations can be used to fund anything from academic to athletic university programs. One of the avenues
these private funds are secured through is alumni donations. During the 2009 Fiscal Year, which ran from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, the Dominion Fund secured $1.67 million in support for university programs. The funds were raised through programs where fund raisers mailed out letters asking for donations or called alumni asking for donations.
The Senior Class Challenge is an effort to bridge the gap between alumni donations and undergraduate students, Massey said. Seniors who donate will have the opportunity to have their money go to the priorities they find most important. Students can choose to have their donations go to specific colleges or to fund lecture supplies, for example. “It’s kind of the money on top of state funding [colleges] can use at their discretion to fund their department,” Massey said. The Senior Class Challenge is important because it educates students in areas of funding for the university beyond the state. It’s not about getting money from students, Massey said. “The whole point is the whole time you’re here, there are alumni, community members who donate these things that go above and beyond your academic experience.” “It sounds good,” said ODU senior Joshua Sinclair.
For other students, participation in the program depends on other factors. Sophomore Roshaun Watson said he would donate to the university, but only under certain conditions. “If it were for a cause I believe in and felt passionate about, then yeah,” he said. In creating the Senior Class Challenge, Massey said the Dominion Fund created focus groups among students to see how well the challenge would be received. It was met with mixed reactions.
While students were up to the challenge, others felt like they didn’t have money to give, Massey said. That’s understandable, however. Massey said the Dominion Fund is aware that a lot of students work and go to school full-time. Giving money to the university on top of tuition might not be something students feel is possible. One of the strategies the Dominion Fund has devised to combat this sentiment is done by giving students tangible proof that their donated dollars go to the university. Throughout campus, the members of the program have placed blue bows on items that have come as a result of monetary donations to the university, like on the columns of the Ted Constant Convocation Center. “Education surrounding donations prove to students that the money does go somewhere,” Massey said. “Hopefully you can see that through all these tangible reminders.
