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The senior class gift reached over $22,000 in total fundraising on Wednesday, April 19, according to its website. While the Senior Class Gift Committee already surpassed their goal of raising $15,000 for their gift, their fundraising efforts continued through Senior Week in hopes of meeting their class participation goal of 75 percent. The gift, an endowed scholarship fund in the class’s name, will go into effect as early as next semester when it will begin contributing to Vassar’s financial aid budget.
To date, the 2010 Endowed Scholarship Fund has the largest rate of student givings among the College’s 21 peer institutions with comparable senior gifts, reported co-Chair of the Senior Gift Committee and outgoing Vassar Student Association Vice President for Operations Brian Farkas ’10. Usually Vasar ranks around no. 18 for giving. The class gift has witnessed high levels of participation from the Vassar community since the Senior Class Gift Committee unveiled it on Dec. 5, 2009. “We’ve gotten support from outside community members, and faculty, and staff at Vassar, as well as parents and alumni, so it’s a school-wide effort, a community-wide effort, and that’s exciting,” said co-Chair of the Senior Class Gift Committee Rachel Gilmer ’10.
Due to the sheer volume of this support, the gift outstripped its $15,000 goal Tuesday, April 20. Even before reaching this goal, the gift far outstripped the gifts at Vassar’s 21 peer institutions as a result of the soliciting, tabling in the College Center, mailings and door-to-door requests made by the members of the Gift Committee. As part of this, the Senior Class Gift Committee held the College’s first-ever Faculty-Student Basketball game in February and hosted an informational session on financial aid entitled “Why Do We Need Financial Aid? A Conversation about Education and Access.” The Senior Class Council has also played a role in drumming up support, helping by tabeling in the College Center, sending out mailings and going door-to-door requesting donatin. The Council and Committee have worked hard to sustain the community and the senior class’s excitement about the gift.
“The vast majority [of the senior class] has given,” said Farkas. “Our class participation is about 70 percent, which is really good.” Yet, the Committee is still working to beat the participation record of the Class of 2009, which saw 72 percent of their class give to a winter internship fund.
However, both Farkas and Gilmer remain optimistic about meeting the 75 percent goal. While “there are a bunch of people…who haven’t contributed,” Farkas said, “in many cases that’s because they’ve been busy this year and may not have had the time to go through the website…so we’ll continue to remind people over the course of this week.”
Gilmer echoed this sentiment: “It’s not that people don’t want to give; it’s just reminding people that it’s there…It’s a lot of footwork, but it’s gratifying work.”
Gilmer also stressed that at this point in the fundraising effort, “it’s not about the monetary goal.” Instead, Gilmer stated the Committee was eager to stress the importance of giving to a cause larger than any individual student or class. Said Gilmer, “It’s not about the money being spent; it’s about the act of giving, the act of contributing to the College’s future and future generations of students who want to come here…that’s really what the gift is about.”
Striving to achieve some larger purpose has driven the senior class gift since the beginning. According to Farkas and Gilmer, the Committee felt passionate about addressing the financial needs of students attending Vassar. To this end, they felt it was important to extend the College’s ongoing commitment to a need-blind admissions policy. The Committee also recognizes that this is an issue that affects many Vassar students on a personal level.
Said Gilmer, “I know for me personally, I’m on a financial aid…It’s the reason I’m here. It’s the reason so many of my friends are here, and I think Vassar would be a very different place if we weren’t giving everyone the equal opportunity to be here.” According to Gilmer, the Class of 2010 Scholarship Fund will help students of all different backgrounds find a place at Vassar. “Scholarships are the foundations of justice and equity because they put everyone at more of an equal playing field than they would otherwise be on,” said Gilmer. “In some ways, education should be this great equalizer that allows everyone the opportunity to start here and then go from there. Scholarships are the first chance in doing that.” Both Farkas and Gilmer cited the gift’s message of social justice as the key factor responsible for the community’s response.
Farkas saw this gift as part of a larger commitment on the College’s part to financial aid and higher education affordability. “President Hill arrived at the same time our class did in 2006, so literally since the first week on campus, she has been incorporating educational access and affordability into her conversations about what the College should be doing, and our class has absorbed that over the last four years.” Affordability and accessibility, Farkas continued, are now core values for Vassar.
And while the Committee continued to solicit donations, they are proud of what they have accomplished thus far. “It was just really incredible, especially with everything that is going on with the economy right now, people are really being more exclusive with where they spend their money—they’re being careful—and it’s really exciting to see a cause that we can get the entire senior class behind, as well as the entire student body,” concluded Gilmer.
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