The Young Alumni of Dartmouth Association launched its Senior Class Gift Campaign last night with a party held in Collis Commonground.
Seniors attending could nibble on Brie, French bread and chocolate chip cookies, get a free glass of wine or beer from the bar, order a copy of the 2004 Aegis or listen to the live jazz band's rendition of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer," as well as ask questions about the Dartmouth College Fund.
The purpose of the party was to "introduce seniors to the Dartmouth College Fund and the Senior Class Gift: show them what we are, how to donate, and why it's so important to have a high participation rate," said Paul Bozzello '04, a Dartmouth College Fund intern.
It is important to have a high participation rate because "people are far more likely to donate as alumni if they give senior year," Bozzello said.
Bozzello also noted the importance of giving money to Dartmouth as a way of "showing thanks" to an institution that has given them many opportunities.
According to the Dartmouth Alumni Office's Web site, it costs about $80,000 per year to educate one Dartmouth student. The difference between this figure and the tuition charged is made up largely with alumni gifts.
The Senior Class Gift is part of Dartmouth's Annual Fund, which is fed directly into the operating budget. Seniors may later choose to allocate the total gift to any of the following eight areas: the College's highest priorities, academic programs, athletics, financial aid, student programs and services, technology, the digital library or the campus.
The Dartmouth College Fund hopes to raise a total of $10,000 from the senior class this year, according to Nariah Broadus, assistant director of the Dartmouth College Fund.
While Bozzello said that the Dartmouth College Fund would ideally like 100 percent of seniors to make donations, he noted that he would be happy to see donations from about 50 percent. Last year, about 28 percent of seniors gave.
Several of Dartmouth's peers in the Ivy League have similar senior gift programs that receive funds from larger percentages of the graduating class. Close to 90 percent of Princeton seniors, about 70 percent of seniors at Harvard and Columbia and a little less than half of Penn students give money to similar programs, according to the Dartmouth College Fund's senior class gift website.
Although Broadus said that the funds for the Commonground party came from the Dartmouth College Fund, she declined to discuss further the budget for the event.
