Photo courtesy of Connecticut College.
On Oct. 22nd, Connecticut College launched “Defy Boundaries,” a public campaign with the goal of raising 300 million dollars in donations. This large-scale movement has been in the works since the establishment of the Connections program in the 2014-15 academic year, and in 2016 a strategic plan was released that outlined the future objectives of the college moving forward.
This strategic plan focuses on several areas upon which the college vowed to improve, sectioned into three priorities: “Enhancing Academic Distinction,” “Enriching the Student Experience,” and “Supporting a Diverse, Just, and Sustainable Community.” Each segment comes with a list of objectives and specific actions.
The campaign has so far raised 205 million dollars, totalling 68% of its goal. In perusing the website, a viewer will find little about the concrete plans for where the money is actually going, and the ‘GIVE’ page is perhaps more telling than anywhere else, as it allows potential donors the option to select where their money goes. Among the variety of choices allowed for the donors in question, are three highlighted sections; “Area of Greatest Need”, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”, and “Athletics”.
Allowing donors the opportunity to choose where their money goes is not unusual for campaigns. However, what should be questioned is what the college approved to be the three most essential places in need of money, particularly the “Area of Greatest Need.” It is not clear on the website what precisely this area is and who is choosing what it is, and so this curiosity remained as one of the catalysts to try and set up an interview with the president.
The College Voice sat down with President Katherine Bergeron on Nov. 3rd to discuss the new initiative.
“Defy Boundaries is a concept that speaks to Conn in a whole number of ways. On one hand, it speaks to our founding, as a college that created opportunities for women that did not exist.” said Bergeron of the new campaign that was officially approved by the Board of Trustees the previous week. “The second dimension has to do with our landscape, and that the sky’s the limit. The third is that together as a community, the campaign will allow us to raise new resources beyond where we ever thought we could go.”
When asked how the college plans to divide up the money raised via the campaign, Bergeron responded; “We started with a new curriculum, which you know as Connections, and that became the foundation for the strategic plan. The campaign has five goals that are wrapped into the goals of the strategic plan. Defy Boundaries is actually designed to build the resources that will realize the ambitions of these plans. And so, that will happen over time.”
We asked President Bergeron specifically about the choice to allow donors the opportunity to choose where their money goes and whether or not she believes that it gives more power to wealthy donors over what direction the school takes. In response, she said;
“Philanthropy is about matching your needs with other people’s interests. The part that’s very important about a campaign is that you help to direct people towards the things that you as a community have recognized are the most important. And so now as a result of the gift by the Hales, we announced a challenge, so that 10 million of that campaign will turn into 20 million, and with targeted outreach to donors, it will be a one-to-one match.”
When prompted about how the “Area of Greatest Need” is decided, President Bergeron was not exactly clear.
“We have an annual fund and a number every year and a goal to reach and that is part of our operating budget every year. And that goes to the most important things: supporting students, supporting programs.”
Although this allows us a little bit of insight into how certain donation areas are capped once enough capital has been allocated, it doesn’t tell us anything about what exactly our “greatest need” is. It seems strange that the Connecticut College administration would not consult any students, who intimately know the ins and outs of day-to-day life on campus, and would have concrete suggestions of where exactly our areas of greatest need might actually be.
While it is nonetheless impressive for Connecticut College to have raised 205 million (so far) in campaign donations, the goals of the strategic plan require adjusted actions. A lot has happened since the plan was devised in 2016, and the goals should reflect that. Custodial and dining employees remain understaffed and underpaid, and a salary raise could result in more applicants and give back to the surrounding community which would hugely benefit from contributions by the college.
Additionally, after facing three cases of voyeurism over the past four years, the school faces a time of crisis in sexual violence and should direct funds towards the underfunded Sexual Violence Prevention and Advocacy Office, as well as institute efforts to assist in employing more people to run the Title IX office which is currently understaffed.
Finally, as a predominantly white institution, we should be focusing further movement towards supporting staff, faculty, and students of color, especially after losing Dean John McKnight earlier this year, who took on a great deal of responsibility for the school’s issues with diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is also worth noting that on the Defy Boundaries website, two out of three of the student profiles on the front page are students of color, which does not accurately portray the actual levels of diversity of the school.
300 million dollars is an enormous sum of money for the college to raise in under a decade, and we’re already on our way to achieving it. What students want to see however, is a guarantee that the money will not all be directed towards athletics and academic programs, which are already doing considerably well. The administration should work towards seeing students as allies and contributors instead of shielding them from seeing where the money is going. We should be allowed to make judgements and suggestions, because it is our livelihood that this money will affect. What, for example, will go towards the black mold reported in the River Ridge apartments? And what more do students have to do to show administrators that the voyeurism problem is its own area of greatest need? Who is deciding what defines that area? How can we make our own contributions?
The barrier to resolving student-raised issues such as black mold, underfunded SVPA office, and others mentioned previously, has been cited as not having enough funds time and time again. The campaign has raised 205 million dollars thus far, and still seemingly nothing has changed. What we need now is transparency from the administration about where this money is going, and why students are not part of this deciding process. If students are seen as allies and partners that work together towards improving the school, then we can fully utilize the gifts of this campaign, to make Conn a place that not only promotes, but acts upon the idea of community contribution and creates citizen leaders.
