Student Organizations, College Target Big Money: Alumni Donations

Student groups, perennially cramped for space in campus offices, are also feeling a financial pinch as demand invariably exceeds available funding.

The University recently earmarked $4 million from its Capital Campaign to rebuild a Memorial Hall tower destroyed by a fire in 1956. And of the $965 million Harvard hopes to raise for the College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences by the end of this year, much of that money already has been directed to financial aid, Faculty salaries and University operating expenses, according to the University Development Office.

The student organizations that loom so large in undergraduates' lives are nowhere on the University's wish list.

Instead, a financially strapped Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) relies on its alumni. Last year, the club sent out a newsletter, asking for support in exchange for free tickets to Loeb Mainstage productions. But according to Michael P. Davidson '00, HRDC president, this endeavor has not yielded much thus far. The organization has received enough alumni donations to cover the costs of the newsletter but not much more.

"We have to do this because of the high costs of producing theatre," Jessica K. Jackson '99, former HRDC president wrote in an e-mail message. "Our club funding has not been raised for a very long time."

HRDC is not alone. The College's 240-plus student groups annually race for grants, competing against one another for money from the Dean of Student's Office, the Office for the Arts, the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations and the Radcliffe Union of Students.

But the size of the prize is not sufficient, student group leaders say. For example, the Undergraduate Council, one of the most popular sources of funding, receives requests that total twice the amount the council has allocated for the grants, according to council treasurer Sterling P. A. Darling '01.

With limited resources to turn to at the College, student groups are instead trying to turn to their alumni for support--some with more success than others. Until the College places student groups higher on its list of priorities, space will remain sparse and funding even scarcer.

Conflicting Priorities

For Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, student groups may be on the top of students' priority lists, but administrators rank other needs higher.

"Focusing on 'what students want' would tend to focus on short-term goals, and we constantly have to think about the long--indeed the very long--term goals," Lewis wrote in an e-mail message. "The only reason Harvard has been around for 360 years is that each generation has thought about the needs of future generations, not just about its own."

"I am not sure that there would be many people paying the bills to go here who would want the expenditures of those dollars prioritized by some plebiscite among students," Lewis added.

Instead, alumni may turn to Faculty members like Sidney Verba '53, director of the University Library and Pforzheimer University professor of government, to prioritize their funds. Verba says funding libraries is at least as essential to the student experience as funding student groups.

"If the libraries weren't here, the University wouldn't be here," he says, adding that undergraduate use of the University libraries has increased over the years as curricula changed.

"The Core curriculum is no longer a list of 50 Great Books," he says. "Today, undergraduates get some exposure to the depth of a subject."

So for Verba, the libraries are one concern that is crucial to student satisfaction. And alumni, wooed by the University and its campaign-raising efforts, tend to look no further.

"I leave it up to the University," says Whipple V.N.Jones '32, who has given over $10 million in unrestricted donations to the College Fund.

"I think the University takes the students' opinions into consideration in every decision it makes," he adds.

And Katherine B. Loker, who donated $2.5 million to help build Loker Commons, says she couldn't agree more.

"I think they're doing a marvelous job, absolutely perfect," Loker says.

Still, Loker recently stopped giving to LED lightboards and started giving to libraries, donating $14 million last spring for the first-ever renovation of Widener Library, including a new electrical system, a climate control system, a fire suppression system and new study carrels.

Finding Funding: The Options

With alums trusting the University to decide where their money goes, student groups are often left to fend for themselves.

Most grants from College organizations are decided on an individual basis, so each group must apply anew each semester, and amounts may change from term to term depending on the source's budget.

The percentage of the Undergraduate Council budget allocated for student group grants is determined each year by council members, with a set minimum of 60 percent of the total budget.

This year, the grant percentage was set at 63.75 percent-- over $79,000.

With the funds rolled over from last year and an additional $10,000 grant from Harvard Dining Services, the total amount of Council funds reserved for student group grants this school year is $100,090.30--about half of the money student groups request from the council.

"There simply is not enough funding on Harvard's campus to adequately support the outstanding groups that Harvard students dedicate their time, efforts and often financial resources to," Darling says.

So when the grant gods do not favor student groups in search of funds, these undergraduate organizations often turn to their own alumni for a helping hand. It is the job of the Associate Director of the Harvard College Fund Nancy Couch to help student groups better target their alumni and their alumni dollars.

"The Signet Society met with her to raise funds from its alumni to increase its endowment and provide for the upkeep of its building," says Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, who works with Couch. Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum also worked with Couch when planning its international tours, Epps says.

According to Epps, the University maintains strict guidelines regarding student group solicitation of funds from alumni. Groups can either conduct annual appeals, a means of fundraising that does not require permission from Epps' office, or they can seek alumni funds for a specific project, for which they must first obtain Epps' permission.

Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel is one organization that relies heavily on alumni donations and has found success in soliciting them.

Hillel Co-Chair Michael A. Kay '01 says direct donations, as opposed to University funding, make up 70 percent of the organization's budget. Of that 70 percent, Kay says, a significant amount comes from donations by Hillel alums--solicited through mailings and student phone-a-thons--while the rest comes from the National Hillel Association and non-alum donors with an interest in the Jewish community.

The organization actually receives no funding at all from the University, Kay says. The remaining 30 percent of the budget, he says, is made up by outside grants.

"Many alumni are really eager to give because they feel that they've gotten a lot out of Hillel when they were students here and they want to give back," Kay says.

The Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) also solicits from its alumni twice a year, according to student fundraiser Robert F. Luo '00. A phone-a-thon can bring PBHA between $20,000 and $40,000 a year, and the organization can hold one or two annually.

Luo says while the College does not prevent PBHA from soliciting its alumni, they have not always been that eager to share the wealth.

"PBHA is starting its own capital campaign this year, and we had to negotiate with the University on whom we can solicit and who is off-limits," Luo said. "It's not like they've said, 'No, you can't solicit your alumni' but at the same time they're obviously concerned about being able to solicit alumni themselves."

Kay says that while student groups should be involved in their own development, "it's the responsibility of the University to make sure student groups have enough funding to survive."

"The University should probably take a more active role in extracurricular life by funding student groups," he adds.

Funding in the Future

The College tried to do just that last year when it began a $25,000 student group fund administered by the Dean of Students' Office.

Though the Council president and vice president advise the Dean of Students on administration of the fund, the allocation process is completely independent of the Council's grants process. Next year, when the Dean of Students' Office is eliminated, administration of this fund will fall to the office of the Dean of the College.

The fund dollars are doled out in chunks of $500 or more to student groups.

But current Council President Noah Z. Seton '00 says even with the new funding, student groups are still coming up short.

"It is a great help to many organizations, but it would be better if the fund was larger," Seton says.

Former Council President Beth A. Stewart '00 says she is doubtful the administration will be very receptive to student requests for more funding for any issue surrounding student life given the College's recently established fund for that purpose.

"The administration basically feels like they've done what they're going to do, and it's time for a new issue, she says."

So for the time being, the current budget will survive and procuring additional funds lies in the hands of student group members. Without additional funds, the College will continue to allocate funds to pay for student group expenses and events, rather than earmarking those dollars for what student group leaders say is the ideal long-term solution--a student center.

Stewart says the phenomenon of financially strapped student groups existing within the richest university in the world results naturally when administrators--and not students--define the nature of student needs.

"The people who set the agenda are so removed from anything to do with student life," she says.