By Julie RafatpanahSPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
If you’re a fellow Hofstra senior, I’m sure you’ve received emails about the 2015 Senior Class Challenge, which aims to raise over $6,660 for The Fund for Hofstra by having seniors donate $20.15.
Some of you may have donated, but more likely than not, most of you clicked “unsubscribe.”
I strongly believe that it is important to donate to Hofstra University. Because Hofstra alumni have donated to specific funds, I have been given opportunities that I would not have had otherwise, such as conducting research and traveling to academic conferences.
I understand that my feelings are in the minority on campus – most students see Hofstra’s Senior Class Challenge emails as insensitive and demanding, especially considering the fact that many are faced with at least some degree of debt and uncertainty upon graduation.
Although I agree with donating to Hofstra, it is important for Hofstra to understand why students have such hostile reactions to the way in which they ask for donations. I think that the root of students’ hostility toward the Senior Class Challenge comes from the failure to make donations feel significant, empowering and inherently personal.
Hofstra needs to make students aware of the various ways one can give back to the University. Everyone’s experience at Hofstra is not one-size-fits-all. A person’s donation should be able to reflect, and aid, in what a student valued most during their undergraduate career.
Many students seem to think that the only types of donations that are possible are either ones that are so large you get a building named after you, as with Lawrence Herbert, or ones in which a small amount of money is thrown into a much larger over-all fund to which you pay no mind. These are not the only options for giving back.
When a graduate is ready, he or she can choose to donate specifically to an academic department that helped shape them at Hofstra. A student can also donate to a department to help fund student aid positions – something that has helped me immensely – or create a scholarship fund or a research award within a department, or an internship stipend.
I believe that when donating to something smaller than a university fund, a financial contribution, regardless of its size, is able to have a stronger impact on everyone involved.
It is important for Hofstra alumni to feel connected to the greater Hofstra community, and donations that are targeted towards specific programs and departments not only empower the former students donating, but the current students on the receiving end.
When I have received individual donations from Hofstra alumni, I have been able to meet with them one on one in a way that really makes alumni feel like they are making a difference in a student’s life.
Although I will not be donating to the Senior Class Challenge, I will be providing a donation to Hofstra’s Department of History student aid program in the hope that my small donation may help another student, like myself, buy some much needed groceries down the line.
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