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Your Alma Mater Is Listening. What Message Are You Sending?

Alumni have always made critical contributions of both time and money to their alma maters. From donations large and small, to bequests in wills, to hours spent volunteering for their former schools, alumni help shape the future of the institutions that shaped them. But with recent protests at many schools around the nation鈥攑rotests that often included efforts by some students, faculty, and administrators to compromise free speech and other civil liberties on campus鈥攎any alumni have begun to send a different message. It鈥檚 one that has colleges listening.

A recent profile in the highlighted a steep drop in giving to various institutions, particularly elite liberal arts institutions, that has these colleges and universities on alert.

According to The Times, Yale College鈥檚 alumni fund reported that giving was flat this year. Student-led protests last fall over a thoughtfully worded email about Halloween costumes鈥攚hich of the email鈥檚 author, former Yale faculty member Erika Christakis鈥攃ast the university in an unflattering light in the national media. FIREPresident and CEO Greg Lukianoff, who happened to be on campus at the time of the controversy, captured some of those protests :

Claremont McKenna College reported a decline in donor participation after a series of controversies there last year. Princeton University鈥檚 previously record high-donations saw a nearly 7 percent drop after of from campus.  

The Times profile also highlights an Amherst College alum who cut the school out of his will after he, and alums like him, expressed discontent over misguided 鈥渃ultural and racial sensitivities.鈥 Amherst saw a huge decline in giving:

[T]he amount of money given by alumni dropped 6.5 percent for the fiscal year that ended June 30, and participation in the alumni fund dropped 1.9 percentage points, to 50.6 percent, the lowest participation rate since 1975, when the college began admitting women, according to the college. The amount raised from big donors decreased significantly.

on the fallout at Virginia Tech after the school disinvited author Jason Riley prompted this conclusion: 鈥淐anceling a controversial speaker may well cause more uproar than it prevents.鈥

The publication waded through piles of documents from the school, including a three-inch-thick stack of 鈥渆mails from upset donors, alumni and parents of current or prospective students, as well as the university鈥檚 responses鈥 to them:

Several alumni threatened to pull donations or cancel bequests to Virginia Tech in their wills. 鈥楧on鈥檛 ever ask me for money again,鈥 writes one 1992 graduate following the Jason Riley controversy. 鈥業鈥檓 done.鈥

鈥楽eriously, I am packing away my VT apparel, canceling my plans to attend some football games this fall and no longer traveling to attend any VT Bowl Games,鈥 another 鈥榝ormer Hokie鈥 wrote. 鈥楩uture donations to the University? You鈥檝e got to be kidding!鈥

Internal emails between faculty and administrators, obtained by Heat Street, show just how worried they are about upsetting alumni.

  • From Virginia Tech Alumni Association to university relations: 鈥淸W]e had a trip cancellation [from a 1965 graduate] over the Riley situation.鈥
  • Virginia Tech鈥檚 associate director of gift planning to university relations, over 鈥渆mails from distressed givers鈥: 鈥淭hese are donors I have worked with for many years, and I am going to have to give them a personal call because of the depth of our relationships [...] Can you provide any guidance for me?鈥

Bottom line: Alumni speak volumes with both their wallets and their words.

What message are you sending?


In addition to鈥攐r in lieu of鈥 a gift to your school, consider a one-time or continuing gift to 果冻传媒app官方. Your contribution will go a long way toward fighting for the free speech rights and other civil liberties of all college students.

You can also use our handy form to pledge your commitment to the and ask that your school do the same.

Be sure to keep checking in with FIREto stay in-the-know about the latest happenings at your alma mater.

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