The 21st annual Alumni Fund student phonathon raised almost $500,000 this year, but fell short of its goal by more than $75,000.
The callers were more productive this year and brought in a larger number of pledges, according to Alumni Fund Assistant Director Chris Boffoli.
The callers raised $498,995.64 this year, which was also short of last year's total, $568,000 and their goal for this year, which had been $575,000.
Boffoli cited scheduling conflicts as a key reason for the $70,000 decrease from last year's phonathon.
The phonathon concluded its nine-day run last Thursday amidst a flurry of other activities, such as Winter rush and football playoff games.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities during the early part of the week were cited as one factor that drew many potential student callers away from the phonathon.
In addition, a lecture by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson caused the phonathon to close down for an hour on the "key night" of the event, according to one of the Alumni Fund's student interns, Adrian Durbin '98.
This year, 319 students participated in this year's phonathon, compared to 400 last year.
Boffoli also said the decision to hold the event just a week into Winter term, a week earlier than the phonathon was held last year, is another key reason for the decrease in donations.
Another reason for the low turnout, Boffoli previously told The Dartmouth, is the large number of members of the Class of 1999 who are currently off campus. In the past two years, the '99s were the most active class in the phonathon.
Individual productivity, however, increased. Last year's callers averaged 9.81 pledges per caller whereas this year's callers brought in an average of 15.79.
"If you look at 1993, which seems to be a comparable year in terms of number of callers -- they had three more callers than we did this year -- we booked about 49 percent more pledges to raise over 23 percent more money," Boffoli said.
