With its dramatic soundtrack and clever slogan “#TogetherWeConn,” the Founders Day Challenge promotional video embodies the sentiment of the challenge as a whole: technically well intentioned, but a little over the top.
Though the video’s comment that Conn students “would rather shop at Harvest Fest than online” sounds a little unlikely, and the claim that “our honor code is as strong as our granite walls” either hyperbolizes or raises architectural concerns, I should put aside my ad hominem criticisms to note the problematic implications of this challenge. The Founders Day Challenge could surely benefit
our institution, but we must also consider the socioeconomic assumptions that are made when a challenge like this one is one possible.
The challenge itself exemplifies relatively straightforward, “matching gift” style fundraising. If Conn receives at least 1,000 gifts between Mar. 5 and Apr. 5, 2016, CEO of AOL and Conn alum Tim Armstrong ’93, will reward the givers’ efforts by donating an additional $100,000 to the College. Matt Glasz, Director of Annual Giving for the Alumni Relations Office, explained that Founders Day, the challenge’s concluding date, marks “the date when the College’s charter was officially signed.”
“There was nothing really here,” said Glasz, “except the idea of the College.” Glasz noted that although the College has been through fundraising efforts in the past, with the help of Armstrong’s promised bonus gift, this is Conn’s first Founders Day Challenge. While this year’s challenge may be Conn’s first, it is far from the first of its kind, as institutions in higher education across the country celebrate their Founders Days by soliciting donations.
The practice is not even limited to colleges and universities; several national fraternities and sororities also mark their foundations with this practice. “It’s something that a lot of our peer institutions do,” Glasz added, “have these giving days, or giving weeks, or giving months. It’s sort of a natural fit for us to do it on Founders Day.” According to Glasz, the roughly 40-45 of these so-called “peer institutions” are “schools that are in our size range in terms of enrollment, endowment, selectivity of admissions process.” They are primarily found on the East Coast and include all of the NESCAC colleges but also feature institutions like Colorado College, Davidson College and Pomona College. They are, in a word, elite.
While it makes sense for Conn to gauge its success in fundraising efforts against similar schools, this betrays a telling detail. Like at Conn, the majority of students at these peer institutions come from wealthy backgrounds. This socioeconomic privilege allows for the success of fundraising events like the Founders Day Challenge.
Although Glasz noted that roughly 80 to 85 percent of Founders Day Challenge contributions have come from alumni, the challenge solicits donations from those of any affiliation with the College, including faculty, staff, students and parents. On a basic level, it seems counter- intuitive for faculty and staff to donate to the institution that pays their salaries or for students and families to make gifts in addition to paying tuition, and yet the 15 to 20 percent of non-alumni donations exists.
Glasz considers Conn’s fundraising achievements “middle-of- the-pack to underperforming” in relation to our peer institutions, but he believes that this year’s Founders Day Challenge will meet its goal. At some institutions that we do not consider “peers,” however, this success would prove more difficult to accomplish. We should acknowledge that in fundraising endeavors, elite private colleges and universities have a leg-up over those with less affluent student populations, particularly public institutions.
Regarding the affluence of the student body, Glasz admitted: “It certainly helps to have the donor base that we have.” With 48 percent of students paying the nearly $63,000 comprehensive fee without aid, many students and families at Conn are in the financial position to donate. Students from wealthy families are, of course, more likely to become wealthy alumni, and this feedback loop sustains Conn’s fundraising potential.
At less affluent schools, fewer donations lead to fewer resources, which perpetuates the notion that a student’s academic opportunities are largely determined by their socioeconomic demographic. Not every institution can afford to offer each student $3,000 for an internship, and not every student can afford to attend an institution that does.
To be clear, I greatly appreciate the opportunities Conn has given me, and in under two years here I have developed academically and professionally as well as worked with impressive faculty members and students. But while there are great minds everywhere, access to specific programs and resources is limited, and we must recognize that our privilege comes from our funding, which in turn comes from our privilege.
I do not intend to discourage anyone from donating during the Founders Day Challenge. Rather, I encourage donors to consider that while their gifts support academic resources, athletic equipment and career-building experiences, they also support
a less acknowledged but central priority in higher education: more gifts. •
