The WSA spends a significant amount of time attempting to convince the student body that we are, actually, just students, not some complex part of an administration conspiracy. So for us to be sponsoring and promoting a University fundraiser may seem counterintuitive. But give us the rest of this column to convince you why it is in your best interest and why Wesleyan is deserving of your money. If you still have doubts or questions, let me know and we’ll see if we can’t address them personally.
The first important fact, one that surprisingly few of us are aware of, is that a Wesleyan education costs $62,000. This means that, in addition to the 48 percent of students receiving financial aid, every student on campus receives $18,000 a year toward their education from the gifts and donations of alumni and parents.
Furthermore, many of our peer institutions are at a crossroads regarding financial aid. Some schools have so much money, they don’t know what to do with it all, and are therefore eliminating the cost of tuition entirely for families below a certain income level. This is an initiative Wesleyan would love to undertake, and Wesleyan has recently made efforts to reduce the financial burden on the lowest-income families, however Wesleyan’s financial resources are significantly smaller than the schools undertaking such initiatives (Harvard, Williams, etc). Other schools are choosing to end their need-blind admissions policy in order to build their endowment to become competitive again. Wesleyan is one of the five NESCAC schools that has need-blind admissions, despite having the smallest endowment.
However, focusing on the size of our endowment misses the larger point that Wesleyan is a special place, even if U.S. News and World doesn’t adequately recognize it. A new ranking system has been developed, however, that evaluates schools based on three categories, Community Service, Research, and Social Mobility. Wesleyan is currently the number one ranked co-educational Liberal Arts school based on these criteria, listed in the Washington Monthly.
What’s my point? Wesleyan stands for something. We all see places where Wesleyan could improve on this, but the numbers demonstrate that Wesleyan is living up to the ideals of social mobility and a commitment to access to higher education better than any other co-ed liberal art institution. And all of us, regardless of the amount of financial aid we receive, benefit from the donations that the university receives.
Here’s my challenge. This week, over spring break, at some point in the semester, resist a consumer urge. Don’t buy that Starbucks, drink one fewer beer, walk rather than driving, and send that money to Wesleyan. Even a dollar or two makes a difference (as I’ll explain below), but I encourage all of you to be as generous as you are comfortable being.
And besides all the underlying benefits listed above, there is a stronger incentive. Due to budget cuts, the New York Times readership program is in jeopardy. That means those free Times all over campus as well as those TimesSelect cards that give you online access to the Times. There is a way to save it. University Relations is currently working to find a generous donor to challenge us. Each class has a goal (to be announced soon), either participation- or monetary-based. For each class that reaches its goal, this donor will fund a year of the New York Times program. Therefore, by the end of this year, the program can be secured for the next four. Your money goes to financial aid, but it has the added bonus of preserving a program that is important in keeping us all connected to the outside world.
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