Senior class gifts: It's about the habit, not the amount
As college seniors wave goodbye with one hand, many are writing a check with the other. Area colleges are getting ready to accept gifts from their senior classes that will go toward a variety of needs, including scholarships, facility improvements, Adirondack chairs, and executive podiums.
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As college seniors wave goodbye with one hand, many are writing a check with the other.
Area colleges are getting ready to accept gifts from their senior classes that will go toward a variety of needs, including scholarships, facility improvements, Adirondack chairs, and executive podiums.
Seniors at De Sales College in Allentown are funding a time capsule for the Catholic college's 50th anniversary, to be opened at its 100th. Pennsylvania State University students are raising money to bolster campus mental-health services.
College officials hope the bigger gift will come in future years as a new crop of alumni embrace a habit of philanthropy.
"It's an important part of their education before they leave to understand why giving back is important," said Colin D. Hennessy, executive director of the Penn Fund at the University of Pennsylvania. The senior class gift is a part of the fund.
Penn holds a one-year reunion for new graduates to raise another gift and ensure that the giving will continue, he said. "Once someone has given five years or more, we have a 90 percent retention rate," he said.
Penn's senior class gave more than $86,000 last year, Hennessy said. This year, with about two months to go, just under $30,000 has been collected. Some years, donors may get help from parents or other family members, boosting the amount.
The money raised goes toward undergraduate financial aid, campus beautification, and other needs, he said.
Hennessy said his office is much more concerned with the percentage of students who give than the amount given. This year, 1,200 seniors - about half the senior class - have contributed so far.
"They are trending ahead of where other classes have been at this time," he said.
Eschewing a monetary target, Dickinson College has set a participation goal of 60 percent of seniors. The school also is asking students to consider making three-year pledges to help create that sense of annual commitment.
At Penn State, the senior class decided to build an endowment to support mental-health services on campus, a departure from prior years with gifts such as a solar panel, green roof, sculpture, signs, and scholarships. The fund will help with Penn State's new effort to place counselors in residence halls where they are closer to students, who then may be more inclined to reach out for help, said Haley Kerstetter, director of logistics for the 2016 Penn State Class Gift.
"Our hope is that other universities will hear about this and will be encouraged to start similar programs at their schools," said Kerstetter, 22, a senior public relations major from Selinsgrove.
Penn State's alumni association last week announced that it would match the senior donations up to $200,000.
Other public schools have more modest goals, both because they have only a fraction of Penn State's massive enrollment and because they are only now establishing senior class gifts as a tradition.
Public schools have increasingly looked to emulate their private-school peers' philanthropic efforts to help relieve budget crunches caused by flat or declining state aid.
"We're not here to raise money. This is a not-for-profit institution," said Daniel P. Elwell, the vice president for advancement at New Jersey City University in Jersey City. "But we need funds, resources to support all the education endeavors."
Elwell said the public Jersey City school does not currently have a senior class gift program but is in the process of building a large-scale student philanthropy program that could include a senior gift.
Last year, Rowan University's first senior class gift raised $5,056. Like many other schools, the school suggests seniors make a donation based on the graduating year; for example, $20.16.
This year's Rowan gift, like last year's, will go toward a scholarship for an incoming freshman.
"They want to help this next generation have access to a quality education that's affordable," said John J. Zabinski, Rowan's senior vice president of university advancement.
The class initially set a $2,016 goal, which has since been raised to $5,016. As of last week, the seniors had amassed $3,748.
Eastern University's seniors pick a gift each year, usually a physical object or project on campus. Recent gifts include a memorial garden with benches, renovation of a campus directory, and a custom-cut glass window in the campus chapel.
This year, students are fund-raising for three podiums that will have the university shield or seal in the front, for use at events, including commencement Friday.
Physical gifts are a reminder to students about their predecessors' role in shaping the campus, said Lisa Dippre Titus, Eastern's vice president for advancement.
"The physical reminder of those who preceded us, we walk past them every day," she said. "We walk among them, we walk with them shoulder-to-shoulder on our educational quest."
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